What is the dumbest thing you ever did at work?

[SeekingZen]

I'm sitting at my desk, and my wife called. Then the other line rang. It was the receptionist. She said, "A Ron is here to see you". I got confused. I told the receptionist "OK, love you - Smooch". :LOL

The receptionist was a very cute, but dumb single blonde.

Needless to say, from then on, every time I passed the receptionist desk, and nobody was around, she teased me. I was so embarrassed. She thought that was the funniest thing.

[Rattus]

I asked one of the vice presidents if he could get the other vice president to stop bringing hookers into the office and/or stop consorting with staff on his desk. VP #1 apparently has no sense of tact and told VP #2 right out what I had requested. VP #2 called me into his office and in so many words told me it was none of my damn business what he did anywhere, any time. My final year at that company was unpleasant, to say the least. Next time, my superiors can do whatever they want, whenever they want.

[Stargazer]

Egads, Rattus. I'd say "unpleasant" was an understatement.

The worst thing I ever did was get drunk, I guess. Twice. I have good excuses, though!

Incident One: My direct supervisor took me and another girl I worked with out to eat for lunch. He started buying drinks and *kept* buying drinks. Finally he was buying pitchers. I don't mean pitchers of beer, either. I mean pitchers of White Russians. My coworker and I assumed that our supervisor (who wasn't drinking) was calling it a day and that he wouldn't expect us to go back to work. Nope. He packed us up in the car and took us back to work, totally hammered. It was the first time since college that I'd actually whispered, "okay, we have to act sober" to someone. We still had the main boss to be afraid of. Thank god, by the time he stopped by my office, we'd almost sobered up. And you would have thought I'd learned my lesson, but no.

Incident Two: The company I worked for was being bought by another company and word came down that they were firing everyone on the management and sales staff. That included me. It was supposed to happen that day and everyone was really upset to be let go like that. My same partner-in-crime and I decided that if we were being fired anyway, we might as well go out with a bang. So we opened a few bottles of champagne that we kept in the office as part of a wedding display. We got some orange juice from the gas station next door, and started drinking mimosas. They were calling everyone down to the main office and letting them know how many days/weeks they had left. I hadn't eaten anything that day, so I was pretty tipsy by the time it was my turn. I sat down and the new owners started talking to me and offered me a promotion. I could only nod and say I'd let them know for sure the next day. Really I was afraid I'd say something that sounded drunk. It worked to my advantage, though, because the next day they offered me more money before I even told them I'd take it.

[PhoneGrrrl]

I could only nod and say I'd let them know for sure the next day. Really I was afraid I'd say something that sounded drunk. It worked to my advantage, though, because the next day they offered me more money before I even told them I'd take it.

Actually, that sounds like a pretty fortuitous turn of events. Had you been sober, you might have taken the job for lower pay. (Not that I'm advocating everyone get trashed at the office, or anything.)

[MRD]

THis wasn't me, but I had a co-worker come in after hours and toilet paper the office. We had an early meeting with clients and when we walked in, the entire office was COVERED! Since she was the managers daughter, she got repremanded, but not fired. STill it was a stupid stunt! And since only 3 of us had keys, we pretty much knew who it was that did it.

[dagwood]

This wasn't me (thank God) but a co-worker got an email with a picture of a man who had tattoos and piercings all over his....um....part. Quite intricate but not work appropriate. Well, the big boss walked in and no one told the two who were looking at it that he had walked up behind them. They turned around and he was white as a sheet. They didn't get in trouble but boy were they embarassed.

[DesertRose]

This is not something dumb I did, but something dumb/embarrassing someone did to me. I am a translator in an insurance firm. As part of the Francophone week, I would send daily jokes to 300+ employees revolving around French written mistakes. One guy liked a joke so much that he tried to send it to his wife of 30 years, reminding her of his undying love . Unfortunately, he hit reply instead of forward, and sent his email straight back to me. Since he didn't know who I was, much less where my desk was, he had to run around and find me before I read the email. Luckily he did. We all had a good laugh, but it could have turned ugly :nono

[Pomeraniac]

I temped at an office about 15 years ago and the guy to whom I'd been assigned was the biggest BUTT-hole I'd ever encountered in my working life (up until that point). He was disrespectful, sexist, domineering, rude, and disgusting.

After an hour and a half of it I picked up my purse and said to a secretary who sat next to me, "I've gotta run to my car."

She said, "Oh, okay. If anyone's looking for you I'll just tell them you had to run to your car."

I ran to my car. I ran to my car, allright. I ran to my car. I ran to my car, unlocked my car's door, put on my car's seatbelt, fired up my car's ignition, threw my car into reverse, backed my car the Hell out of my parking space, and blasted my car out of the parking lot and up Interstate 25 as fast as was humanly possible.

My car was a Nissan 300ZX, so it was pretty darned fast.

Why was this dumb, you ask? It was dumb only because I didn't stop to tell that sick S.O.B. why I was walking out on him.

I still laugh about it, though, wondering how long it took that moron to discover that I ran to my car without ever intending to run back to his Hell Hole of an office.

.

[Stargazer]

This wasn't me (thank God) but a co-worker got an email with a picture of a man who had tattoos and piercings all over his....um....part. Quite intricate but not work appropriate. Well, the big boss walked in and no one told the two who were looking at it that he had walked up behind them. They turned around and he was white as a sheet. They didn't get in trouble but boy were they embarassed.

This reminds me of something that a manager I worked with did. Without giving too many details, her husband had given her a "toy" for Valentine's Day. yeah, one of those kinds of toys. Good for her and everything, but she brought it to work and was showing everyone. Someone finally told the owner and she was reprimanded. I never could figure out what she was thinking.

[lildago]

Great stories, everyone!

My last year as a teacher in inner city Dallas, I had a run in with a student who was bad news. He wasn't in my class but walked into my room and tried to pick a fight with a student who was. I told him to get out and he refused. As I walked towards him, he called me a bitch. My response was, "You picked the wrong bitch to mess with" and I stood toe to toe with him. This was really dumb on my part because I was 8 months pregnant and as big as a house. But it was hot and I was irritable so I stood there and stared him down until he cursed some more, told the other kid he'd get him later, and left my classroom.

The year that I got married, I taught night school to 6 seniors who needed an English credit to graduate. I was using the extra money to help pay for my wedding. Class was from 5-9pm, 4 days a week. One night was really long and I had rushed to class without eating. I was starving so when my best student, Alfonso, asked if he could go to Wendy's during the 15 minute break, I said okay as long as he didn't take too long and didn't get caught sneaking back in. He took our orders and left. After the break, we started class without him but I knew he'd return any minute. In walks the principal who was making the rounds talking to students about an upcoming test. The kids and I were giving each other wide-eyed "oh, crap" looks and hoping he'd hurry with his speech and leave. Sure enough, the door opens and there stood Al with his arms full of Wendy's bags and cups. The look on his face was priceless as he immediately slammed the door and took off! The principal didn't even realize it was one of my students and I just stood there and shrugged. When he left, we all cracked up and shushed each other. Al finally made his way back to the room and we ate. Oh, and we did get back to business. It was alot easier without our stomachs growling!