Your Costliest Errors At Work

zerohamster · 21-05-2010 03:25AM

A friend of mine worked in heatons and there was a massive display stand of Cadbury's Creme Eggs on offer.
One day he and his colleague noticed two of the eggs were damaged and therefor unfit for sale so they wrote them off as damages and figured instead of throwing them in the bin they would each eat one.
A week later both were fired for misconduct and stealing! It was the funniest story to hear but in reality i would be pretty pissed if it was me getting fired without warning.

Tar.Aldarion · 21-05-2010 03:38AM

Working in a nightclub I left the tap on and pushed it over so that it was just going on to the ground instead of the sink and hurried off to do more work/look at girls and well it was on the second floor of quite a fancy nightclub..it wasn't raining inside...that was me... 10k+ I think.

entropi · 21-05-2010 04:34AM

Was working one summer as a labourer on a site, happy days until I turn up at 7am one morn, my boss say wtf did you do last night? I didnt know so I ask him...he says "did you cover up the plaster before you left?" I told him no, he never asked me to.

As it turns out, it rained overnight and I got laid blame with destroying around 3k worth of plaster for some fancy penthouse apartments...told yer man he can shove his plaster and his job up his hole because I aint taking that blame...

Auldloon · 21-05-2010 06:14AM

Gyalist wrote: »

I left £28,000 in cash in the boot of a taxi.

Tell us more?

For weeks I was billing the wrong customer account for my man hours. Was discovered two late to rectify and the company had to write off the loss, about £9000. MD was not very fond of me for a while:o

jester77 · 21-05-2010 07:25AM

Working on a project about 10 years ago during the dot.com boom. Company wanted to update their current sales software to a more modern CRM system. Software licenses and servers were purchased, sent on training courses to Washington, San Jose and London only to start wondering how the **** this companies software was going to work on the new CRM system. Questioned some project managers, flew into Frankfurt to meet some consultants, raised my issues and they immediately said, wrong software. Project ditched, over 300K down the drain and the nice servers were used for an intranet site.

IvyTheTerrible · 21-05-2010 07:39AM

I know of someone who had to do some experiments with sugar in the lab. He was just on work experience so technically he wasn't supposed to work unsupervised, but he thought he knew it all. He stayed late one evening, heated up the sugar, then forgot about it an went home. The sugar exploded, and an entire lab and hundreds of thousands of euros worth of equipment was destroyed. Needless to say, that was the end of his work experience!

Another one I heard on the French news this morning was about a group of people who wear bitching about their workplace on Facebook. While their profiles were private, one of their "friends" report the conversation to their bosses and they all got the sack.

Mister men · 21-05-2010 08:03AM

Working in factory driving forklift and went to take pallet of yougarts off the racking. Pallet fell and exploded as it hit the ground. 5500 euro worth of product down the drain.:o

sbsquarepants · 21-05-2010 08:31AM

Was moving some stuff into a storage warehouse but there was a rack of special double glazed units in my way, specialist glass, very expensive and also about 8 week lead time. Rather than go get the side loading forklift and do it properly, which would have taken all of 5 minutes, i tried to push it with the standard forks i was in, needless to say the forks slipped and went through 3 units at a cost of almost 3 grand each. :eek: Oops
Wasn't too bad though cos only about a week before i'd copped a major mistake that the boss had made, he was supposed to order 4000m of a certain profile and he actually ordered 4000 six meter lenghts, at a cost of almost 30 grand too much.
If it hadn't been for the timing i'd have probably been thrown out!!

gino85 · 21-05-2010 08:40AM

****ed up about 18000 units at work only redeeming thing about it was that they were sample sized products so i wasnt as bad as it could have been, worst i heard was sumone ****ed up a batch of product worth about 100k

humanji · 21-05-2010 08:44AM

I was charged with delivering a tender application for a company I once worked for. I managed to fill in the date wrong and as a result we didn't get the government contract. It was worth about €14m. I'm no longer allowed near application forms.

helimachoptor · 21-05-2010 08:54AM

When I worked in Tesco years ago, the deputy manager asked me had i ever drove a forklift before, me being a 17 year old lad ... "yeah yeah course I have" The next day the back stores guys wondered why the forklift wasnt working, not sure what i did to it but they had to get a new one!

The same DM a couple of months later gave me the keys again, so spinning around the back yard and get a bit caught up in the moment nearly ploughing into his car, which was wrongly parked in the yard!!, anyway a few of the lads are laughing away and me laughing with relief, i slam my foot down on the accelerator forgetting that i hadnt taken the thing out of reverse, so i proceed to lift his car up onto to wheels.

He freaks out and i blame one of the bread delivery men:D

Kiith · 21-05-2010 09:06AM

My last job was in a large pharmaceutical company, and one of the guys in the prodcution suites made a mistake with a batch, which resulted in the entire batch having to by flushed. The batch was worth approx €68 million.

He still works there, but he's on a long probation.

Standard Toaster · 21-05-2010 09:10AM

gino85 wrote: »

****ed up about 18000 units at work only redeeming thing about it was that they were sample sized products so i wasnt as bad as it could have been, worst i heard was sumone ****ed up a batch of product worth about 100k

Hope you didn't work for Durex :eek:

Big Nasty · 21-05-2010 09:39AM

Some great stories here!

aDeener · 21-05-2010 09:54AM

Master of Nothing wrote: »

Was working one summer as a labourer on a site, happy days until I turn up at 7am one morn, my boss say wtf did you do last night? I didnt know so I ask him...he says "did you cover up the plaster before you left?" I told him no, he never asked me to.

As it turns out, it rained overnight and I got laid blame with destroying around 3k worth of plaster for some fancy penthouse apartments...told yer man he can shove his plaster and his job up his hole because I aint taking that blame...

in fairness you really shouldnt have been next or near a building site if you didnt realise that had to be done.

sbsquarepants · 21-05-2010 10:09AM

Kiith wrote: »

My last job was in a large pharmaceutical company, and one of the guys in the prodcution suites made a mistake with a batch, which resulted in the entire batch having to by flushed. The batch was worth approx €68 million.

He still works there, but he's on a long probation.

Unless Seany Fitz is on here, we have a winner!:D

Dravokivich · 21-05-2010 10:10AM

aDeener wrote: »

in fairness you really shouldnt have been next or near a building site if you didnt realise that had to be done.

I doubt he was the only 1 on site...

enda1 · 21-05-2010 10:28AM

sbsquarepants wrote: »

Unless Seany Fitz is on here, we have a winner!:D

Probably €68m retail price.

About €5 in raw materials

billymitchell · 21-05-2010 10:36AM

I used to work for the HSE in payroll. I think in my 12 months there, I over paid various staff members something to the tune of €25k.
Is that costly enough??

m5ex9oqjawdg2i · 21-05-2010 10:47AM

aDeener wrote: »

in fairness you really shouldnt have been next or near a building site if you didnt realise that had to be done.

Off the high horse before you hurt yourself

phill106 · 21-05-2010 10:56AM

billymitchell wrote: »

I used to work for the HSE in payroll. I think in my 12 months there, I over paid various staff members something to the tune of €25k.
Is that costly enough??

Dont get me started.....
Yes i think that is costly enough. Dont worry, i dont blame you, just the lack of accountability and checks....

billymitchell · 21-05-2010 10:58AM

phill106 wrote: »

Dont get me started.....
Yes i think that is costly enough. Dont worry, i dont blame you, just the lack of accountability and checks....

Meh, I could get started as well, but the HSE weren't too bothered, so I am not going to get bothered about it.
Although, I did over pay one person one week, but when she got her correct wages the next week, she got very upset. So upset, it took the head of mental health services in the region to get her to calm down!!
Ah, the civil service, how I pine for those good ould days.....

CrazyRabbit · 21-05-2010 11:07AM

On the postive side, I once found £28,000 in cash in the boot of a taxi.

Sanjuro · 21-05-2010 11:24AM

About two Christmases ago, we had a company-wide table quiz during our Christmas party. My team won, and being the captain, I had to go up to collect our prize. Now, that summer, we had been let go due to lack of work coming in, and we spent 5 months unemployed. So I go up and get the prize, and start to walk back to my table when everybody goes 'SPEECH, SPEECH!' I'm a little bit pissed and say 'no, no speech! I'm just gonna sit down.' But the boss tells me to come up and give a speech.

So I walk up, take the mic off her and before I can think, I hear myself say 'well, it doesn't quite make up for letting us go for 5 months, but it's a start,' shove the mic back into her hand and start back for my table. Absolute silence. And then one of my co-workers bursts out laughing and starts clapping, and then the rest of the company joins in. Was a great moment, but I don't think the management have ever looked at me in a positive light since then.

21-05-2010 11:55AM

I worked in Dunnes when I was in 4th year up to 6th year. At that time the safety policies for driving the forklift didn't apply so anyone who wanted to chance it was allowed drive it. So off I went!

I drove it every now and then for months without a glitch until one evening I had to get into a tight part of the stockroom where the ceiling was down very low. Drove in, grabbed a pallet, raised it up, reversed only to pull pipes, wires, light fixtures and gyproc panels along with me! Didn't even notice the top of the forks reaching the ceiling!

No cameras and no one there to see it so I got away with it scott free

reallyrose · 21-05-2010 12:25PM

Working in a pub once, I was carrying a tray of 25 shots of tequila when someone bumped into me, the tray wobbled and the shots all went over *plink plink plink* like dominos. Whole tray awash with tequila, I had to go back to the bar with the tray and ask for more tequila. Got the head *et* off me by the barman. He got my wages docked for the retail price of the shots. 6 euro a shot!

It was a week of eating plain pasta and no going out that week.

On a non-money cost, I work in the Natural History Museum and I dropped a specimen-holding-box and broke all the glass in it. ~130 years old! I didn't get in trouble, everyone breaks something at some stage. I still felt guilty over it.

mathie · 21-05-2010 12:35PM

I'm part of a party that setup a load of tax breaks for builders which created a property bubble but I don't think this is the worst story here (I mean someone spilt some tequilas) and what's more I'm actually not to blame.

Yours
Briany

johnny_knoxvile · 21-05-2010 12:38PM

i bought some e-voting machines...

CreepingDeath · 21-05-2010 12:52PM

Dravokivich wrote: »

Any bankers here? Sure they'd beat everyone elses story...

With the BP oil rig workers coming in a close second.

Smokin_Aces · 21-05-2010 12:57PM

I was doing work experience a few years ago as part of a school project in a hardware store. The following are true. Still cringe to this day.

I broke 7 Toilet Bowls I was stacking them on top of each other. Thought they were straight so I left it. Turns out they were leaning sideways and smashed all over the ground.

I cracked a lot plasterboards Lots I tell you. One time I got to drive a forklift from the end of the yard to the top of the shop. That is about two football pitch lengths so I was delighted. In this particular moment. I was asked to bring up about 10-15 sheets on the forklift from the end of the yard. Had them horizontal on the fork. Everything was grand till I was speeding across a bump. They cracked down the middle and the boss was out. Got my head bitten for that.

I almost burnt down the yard I was throwing stuff into the incinerator. a couple of cans were used for petrol and diesel but I didn't know. And in the rubbish I was burning, there was an old battery involved. Me walking away thinking everything was rosy. Cue to the lads running down the yard to put out the fire.

Sorry for rambling.

Your Costliest Errors At Work

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