Maybe these stories from complete strangers about job screw-ups will make you feel a little bit better about your own shame…

Let’s take a look at what Twitter users said about this

1.

what’s the worst mistake you’ve ever made at work? after a long & stressful day speedwriting summaries i mixed up the names of (BBC director general) Tony Hall & (disgraced paedophile) Stuart Hall in a report i sent to… BBC DG Tony Hall, all the BBC top brass, the BBC trustees,

— Dan Douglas (@dandouglas) May 12, 2021

2.

When an Admin at the (then) National Assembly for Wales, I accidentally forwarded a video called ‘Bean Bag’ (featuring a guy with giganticism of the scrotum/testacles) to the Commissioner for European Affairs.

Those before me in the email chain were (understandably) livid.

— Kris Jeffs (@cario_clecs) May 13, 2021

3.

Inadvertently changed every single button on the till to a pint of bitter. Want to pay for your stay in the hotel? Hang on whilst I woke out how many pints that is. Thankfully the till repair man was only an hour away 😭

— Mary McGuckin 💙 (@fairymarymary) May 13, 2021

4.

As a rookie English teacher in Spain I felt I had to explain in Spanish what a weasel was, and not knowing the word for it I said “it’s a long thing that goes into rabbit holes”. I was then unaware that the Spanish word for rabbit doubles as a vulgarism for female genitalia.

— An eloquent and astute building in Ecuador (@Cakesniffe1) May 13, 2021

5.

When I was at Nintendo magazine, a young reader challenged me to an online Pokémon battle. I shouted a lot of incredibly rude words at my DS as she wiped the floor with me. At the end a tiny voice came out of the console saying “well done”. One of the new features was voice chat.

— Steve Hogarty (@misterbrilliant) May 14, 2021

6.

I was struggling to solve a band monitor problem & came up with an ingenious rigging solution which involved taking out a couple of ceiling panels. The dust released by that action went straight into the smoke detector and set it off again. Whole building evacuation again.

— Sally (@SallyVanns) May 12, 2021

7.

One of my many, many temporary jobs was looking after the pool at a holiday park. One weekend I had other plans and so decided to just put extra chlorine in, thinking it would be OK for the weekend. Returned to work to find a green pool and angry parents of kids with white hair.

— Jay 🇮🇪🏳️‍🌈 (@ScouseSocialism) May 12, 2021

8.

opening night of Sex and the City 2 film, packed screen we encouraged all the audience to dress up for and they were all drunk as fuck. i was hungover in the projection booth and laced up The Tooth Fairy starring the Rock instead. got about 20 minutes into the film, nearly a riot

— catholic goth (@antibloom) May 13, 2021

9.

Had work experience in a vet surgery as a gormless teen. They handed me an bottle of brassy liquid and said “take this to that sink and clean it out”.

I squirted almost the full bottle right down the drain before I realised it was disinfectant and it was the sink I was to clean.

— Joe Dillon (@joffocakes) May 13, 2021

10.

Saturday shop job working on the tills I found a little button with a key under the counter. Spent an idle 10 minutes pressing the button and turning the key, over and over, until 3 police cars screeched up outside. Not my fault no one had ever told me about the silent alarm.

— One Man and His Meeple – solo BG videos (@onemanmeeple) May 13, 2021

11.

most embarrassing was making up an entire statute in front of a full court while trying to defend my right to be present to report on a hearing. the judge was like “nice try but that law does not exist, goodbye”. (sorry @DBanksy i should have listened more in your classes)

— Zoe Beaty (@zoe_beaty) May 13, 2021

12.

I was hurrying to leave at the end of the day. I put on my jacket in a hurry. Pushed my hand through the sleeve and accidentally punched my boss’s mother in the face. She was visiting the office. That was a bad day.

— Nick Ward (@WoodofKings) May 13, 2021

13.

Magazine I was working for put ‘The Wolf of Wolf Street’ as a cover hit, which none of us caught on proof. Got email from hilarious subscriber asking about the sequel ‘The Wall of Wall Street’.

— Rosie Fletcher (@RosarellaFletch) May 13, 2021