It’s good to know your limitations when it comes to work, but it’s also good if your boss understands your limitations and believes you when you say you need to bring in an expert for a certain job.

This guy’s boss asked him to fix a plumbing issue, but he had no idea how to fix it and only made the problem worse when he tried to fix it.

Check out what happened!

FIX IT NOW!!! – You got it Boss!

I was working in a hotel in the UK as a lobby boy. My afternoon job was to handle guests’ requests for extra pillows, blankets, etc.

The system worked like this: the guests informed the reception, the details were written in a notebook (e.g., “Room XY – pillow”), and every so often, I checked the book, solved the problems, and ticked them off when done.

This is where it gets interesting

One night, during dinner, the hotel boss wrote a note in the book: “Room XXX – hot water tap is not working.”

I went to the room, checked it—yup, not working.

I went back and wrote in the book: “Can’t fix it, call a plumber.”

On my next round, there was a new message: “FIX IT NOW,” underlined three times…

He had no idea how to do it!

Well… I went back to the room, checked the hot water tap again (in the UK, there are two taps on the sink, one for cold and one for hot).

Still couldn’t fix it.

I tried a few things until, somehow, the pipe (the one from the wall to the sink) popped out, and boiling hot water started pouring onto the floor at full force.

PANIC MODE ON.

He needed HELP!

I grabbed the room phone and called reception—busy.

So, I sprinted through the hotel (the room was on the farthest side), jumped into reception, and shouted:

“Room XY, PLUMBER, NOW!”

Then I rushed back to the room.

The water was still gushing out at full force, so I just sat on the edge of the bathtub, holding the pipe so that the water poured into the tub instead of flooding the floor.

It only gets more CHAOTIC

After about three minutes of this, the hotel boss peeked into the bathroom, went pale, and ran away…

Five more minutes passed. Then the fire alarms went off—because of the steam.

Fortunately, the staff already knew what was happening, so they told the guests it was a false alarm and didn’t evacuate the hotel.

Another ten minutes later, they finally shut off the water supply for the entire wing of the hotel.

A plumber arrived and fixed the tap in three minutes.

There’s more work left!

Now came the fun part: cleaning.

Surprisingly, there wasn’t much water in the bathroom (considering the tap had been gushing for over fifteen minutes).

So, I went one floor lower to see where all that water had gone.

I entered the room’s bathroom, switched on the light… but it was very dim.

That’s when I realized: the bowl-shaped lamp cover on the bathroom ceiling was filled to the brim with water, with the lightbulb happily sitting inside it.

UH OH…

Oh no.

Light off.

Drained the water from the lamp cover, mopped up that bathroom too… but still, it didn’t seem like enough water for what had happened.

So, I went even lower.

That’s INSANE!

Below that bathroom, on the ground floor, there was a corridor (luckily, not another room).

But the ceiling had gotten so wet that it collapsed—a 2×3 meter section of it had come crashing down onto the carpet.

After 15 minutes in a sauna-like bathroom, 30 minutes of cleaning, and clearing the rubble, I finally stepped outside for some fresh air.

Finally a breath of relief!

That’s when my roommate walked past, took one look at me, and asked:

“Did someone puke on you?”

Since then, whenever I say I can’t fix something, they actually believe me and call a professional.

YIKES! That sounds so chaotic!

The boss should’ve called a plumber right away.

Let’s find out what folks on Reddit think about this story.

This user shares what a judge on a tv show once said.

This user shares their advice as a hotel manager.

This user loves the evidence that the notebook holds.

This user wants to know if the guy got paid for the plumber’s job.

That’s right! This user knows how hotels think of lobby boys.

This boss clearly learned his lesson!

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.