Source: Pexels/Reddit

Working the hotel night audit usually means mastering the art of looking alive while your spirit is still asleep. Between surprise check-ins, mysterious noises, and all the other metaphorical (and in this case- literal) fires, every night is its own whacky adventure.

What would you do if your embarrassing work situation was witnessed by nearly everyone in a 1 mile radius? One person recently shared their cringeworthy experience with this on Reddit. Here’s what happened.

My embarrassing situation tonight

TIFU by trying to make my dinner.

Just about half past midnight on my night audit shift.

I’m down to just 2 or 3 arrivals so I decide to make my dinner a little early.

Seems as good a time as any.

Took my sad, dinky little frozen meal to the kitchen since we currently don’t have a microwave in the break room.

The packaging has no instructions for microwave times and specifies oven or air fry times only.

Its not like its raw meat or anything so I decide “whatever” and toss it in the microwave for a few minutes anyway.

Famous last words.

Surely it’ll be defrosted and edible after about 3 minutes.

It doesn’t say NOT to put it in there… just says “for best results” that the microwave isn’t “recommended”.

It’ll be okay.

This probably should have been Googled ahead of time.

Went back to my desk to keep an eye out for my remaining arrivals, texting a friend about how annoying it is that some frozen meals don’t have microwave instructions despite easily being microwaveable.

And you’ll never believe what happened.

Suddenly all the fire alarms are going off.

Who could have seen that one coming?

After the initial “What the heck?” reaction wears off I immediately knew exactly what happened.

Booked it to the kitchen and opened the door and the entire kitchen is filled with smoke.

Microwave dings to tell me my food is ready as if to mock me.

Seems like it’s maybe a little TOO ready.

I leave the kitchen door propped open to air out the smoke and my desk phone is going CRAZY.

Calls from about 5 or 6 rooms asking me what’s going on and what to do.

I’m trying to tell them its the fire alarm and they need to evacuate but of course they can’t hear me over the alarm going off.

This is the stuff of nightmares.

Hotel full of people, children, and pets slowly meandering their way out of the exit.

Luckily its not a huge hotel, less than 80 rooms, but of course the kitchen is right by the evacuation point.

I can see people gawking at the ​smoke inside and muttering to themselves about how someone’s getting fired- how it was “definitely one of the staff”.

Not his humiliation being on full display…

People are pointing at me while they talk.

I could combust.

I get my manager on the phone and I’m begging her to tell me how to at least silence the alarm.

That would at least put a band-aid on the problem.

She doesn’t know.

I call the maintenance guy, he tells me I gotta wait for the fire department.

Our alarm system company calls me and asks if everything is ok, I say yes- there’s no fire.

Is ANYONE here going to prove to be helpful?

Just an idiot with a microwave.

Fire department shows up fast.

They mess with the panel and attempt to shut it off too but they can’t get it to stop.

Who in the heck designed this system?

By this point people are coming back into the building because they know it’s not an emergency.

Finally they turn the stupid thing off and everyone files back inside.

I’m sweating gallons from the embarrassment.

As anyone would be.

Still had to leave the kitchen door open as they filed back in just as a last middle finger to my already shattered self esteem.

Everyone, predictably, stares at it on their way back in too.

There’s a guy recording it for some reason.

A sign of the times.

Fire department did their mandatory walk around the property just to make sure everything was in order, and they left without even speaking to me.

My manager is doing her best to assure me it wasn’t my fault and it was just an accident.

Bless her.

Everyone could use a manager like that.

She tells me earlier in the day another desk person used that microwave and it displayed an error message but nothing bad happened.

That would’ve been nice to know.

Still unsure if it was the microwave itself, or the blackened charcoal I pulled out of it after the fire department left.

It’s hard to say really.

Sitting in the back office as I write this an hour later.

Everyone’s back in their rooms and peacefully asleep.

All’s well that ends well.

No big deal at the end of the day, nobody was hurt,​ but needless to say I am thoroughly humiliated.

Today’s lesson? Just follow the instructions man.

The night shift just got a whole lot crispier for everyone. Let’s see how the good people of Reddit reacted to this one.

The comments immediately provided some much-needed validation.

And shared in the OP’s pain.

One person offered practical advice.

If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about a contractor who flew along way and spent 3 days on a fix only to find a breaker that needed to be flipped.

Another tried to get to the root of the problem.

And encouraging words were left.

The night shift: keeping the lights on and fires burning while the world sleeps.