Employees have been sharing their biggest mistakes at work after the BBC was forced to apologise for a trainee's message that read 'Manchester United is rubbish' during a tennis update on Tuesday. Newsreader Annita McVeigh explained that a technical glitch occurred whilst the staff member was learning how to use the ticker - the text that runs along the bottom of the screen.
She said they had been "writing random things, not in earnest", emphasising the text was a mistake. In response, TV critic Scott Bryan asked Twitter users to reveal their greatest mishaps when starting a new job.
His tweet went viral, with hundreds of people sharing embarrassing tales from their former roles - including one woman who admitted to accidentally piercing her plastic glove into a little girl's ear whilst working at a jewellery store and another who accidentally punched her boss in the face during her first week. Shortly after the BBC clip of the blunder had been shared widely online, Scott asked: "What is the biggest f**k up you have done when you started a new job?"
He kicked off the thread, confessing: "Here’s mine: I once worked in a bakery and within 45 minutes had burnt toast resulting in the fire brigade being called." The tweet has since racked up 167 quote retweets, but we have whittled it down to a collection of some of the best stories for you to enjoy.
Molly Wyatt responded: "Working at [jewellery store], and I pierced my glove onto a little girl's ear, hand still in glove." Hannah said: "I’ve said this before but I am kept awake at night about how I accidentally ate my boss’ lunch on the first week of my last job."
Jo Burkill responded: "Said ‘love you’ to a client at the end of a call by accident. There was a pause and an awkward ‘love you too.’ We never mentioned it again."
Chrispylizard said: "Told a customer that if they came back two days later on blue cross sale day then the trainers they wanted would be 20%. He came back on blue cross sale day but it turned out the trainers weren’t in the sale. I hid in the stockroom. BEAT THAT."
Michael Sturrock explained: "Went to the wrong airport flying back from my first Brussels trip. Took a €95 lightning-speed Uber to correct airport but missed the flight by about 45 seconds. Then cost them another €450 for a new flight back… which left from the airport I went to the first time."
Franky Harte explained: "When I was runner on Europa League coverage on TV3 I served a cup of tea to a well known Irish football punter who roared ‘That’s de worst cuppa tay I’ve ever had in me liiiife!!!’ as I left the studio. Turned out the kettle was broken and the tea was barely lukewarm."
Felicity Hannah said: "I showed up to be a kitchen assistant in a workplace canteen but they thought I was a trained chef. I made 75 sandwiches instead of the massive lasagne on the menu. I did not make it to day 2."
Tiegan wrote: "Scanned someone’s whole shop on my till and only realised once I got to the end that I hadn’t signed on and none of it had gone through". Paul Patrick admitted: "Asking the boss when her baby was due. She wasn’t pregnant."
Kevin Egan said: "Teenager, first day in the local pub. Easter Sunday, full house. Owner shouts to take the glasses out of the dishwasher and rinse them, they're needed. Promptly opened it without turning it off, water everywhere, including drowning the nearest customer - the local guard."
Prof Neil Martin wrote: "Using email for the very first time, thinking "reply all" meant "all of the message" and sending my girlfriend a fruity "invitation" copied in to the whole department. Not the end of the world, but some of the replies... were interesting."
Simon revealed one incident resulted in his first day being his last day. He said: "It was a cleaning job, I had to drive the van (everyone else had a ban). I drove on the motorway in second gear, I overshot the industrial estate, reversed in a cul de sac, hit a wall, lengthy gash in the side of the van. Filled insurance forms in & then sacked. 1st and last day."
Jamie Stables wrote: "First shift at a [bank] branch. Pull the emergency card out the till thinking its a note and all the shutters go up. The doors all locked and alarms are going mad. We had been open hardly any time as well, maybe 10-15 minutes."
Kevin said: "I shut down the entire internal/external comms/internet everything for 3 days. An engineer had to fly over to fix it."
Rónán Carson admitted: "Worked in hotel doing night porter, was cleaning the skirting boards at 7am, lost my balance and headbutted the red fire alarm and woke all the guests up! REFUND CITY."
Grace wrote: "Accidentally punched my boss in the face during the first week of working with him... well elbowed him in the face to be specific. I was his PA and it was at a rounders social. I was tying up my hair and he came beside me and WHAM lol".
Have you made a big blunder at work? Let us know in the comments.
