Mistakes are inevitable—except for maybe a wind cone. It’s hard to mess up when your only job is standing still. But the rest of us have to prepare to face the music when things go haywire.
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I was a brand new, right out of college Computer Programmer (back before we had Software Developers). We worked on minicomputers at the time and I had a long process that I needed to run which tied up my terminal. I went into the storage closet and dragged out another terminal so that I could do stuff while the process ran (an old version of multi-taking. You kids have no idea how easy you have it nowadays).Well, because the new kid had two terminals, none of the other programmers wanted to look less productive, so everyone else did that. Then a week or so later the president of the company came back to the programmer area so he could mess around with some new hardware that came in. He looked around and said “Looks like everybody has two terminals now!“Being a smart-a*s, I quicky quipped “Well, we all have two hands!” Which was met with silence. Huh, usually my quips get at least a chuckle.It was then that I remembered that the president of the company did not, in fact, have two hands. He had a birth defect and one did not develop properly.
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When I was a server, I once asked a woman when she was dueShe wasn’t pregnantThat was the last time I’ll ever assume that.
Such discussions might seem inconsequential at first, but amusement aside, they also help us normalize setbacks—something many people really struggle with.“Fear of failure stems from the fear of experiencing shame. Shame is the most terrible feeling, and we all try to avoid it,” psychotherapistHilary Jacobs Hendel, author ofIt’s Not Always Depression,toldBored Panda.It is common for people to experience fear of failure occasionally, especially when we believe there is a lot to lose if we do not succeed. However, if left unchecked, it might affect our ability to function and hinder our personal growth.
Such discussions might seem inconsequential at first, but amusement aside, they also help us normalize setbacks—something many people really struggle with.
“Fear of failure stems from the fear of experiencing shame. Shame is the most terrible feeling, and we all try to avoid it,” psychotherapistHilary Jacobs Hendel, author ofIt’s Not Always Depression,toldBored Panda.
It is common for people to experience fear of failure occasionally, especially when we believe there is a lot to lose if we do not succeed. However, if left unchecked, it might affect our ability to function and hinder our personal growth.
I prepaid for gas and never pumped it. I just paid, walked out the door and got in my car and drove off.
Wouldn’t say it’s my “favorite” but it’s one that haunts me the most. When I was in college I went to a computer in the school library. They were on these big circular desks with computers all around.It was morning so I was kind of tired, some people were on the computers working already. And me being kind of tired still, I sat there got on a computer and then I stretched my arms and then stretched my legs out, and unfortunately the power strip for the computers was near me on my side and my foot his the button on the power strip and turned off all the computers on that deskI don’t remember what she looked like but I still remember the kind of look of quiet anger and frustration of this girl that was working on a paper, just suddenly lose all of her work. She just quietly got up and walked away.I would’ve felt better if she just stood up and punched me in the face.
For example, a Workhumansurveyof 1,000 full-time employees discovered that 61% of U.S. workers say they’re productive at work, but it comes at a cost. Eighty percent report they have “productivity anxiety” and over one-third have it multiple times a week.Productivity anxiety is higher among Gen Z with 30% battling it every day and 58% having it numerous times a week. Meeting deadlines is the leading indicator of having “a good day” (68%), and making mistakes tops the list as a sign of a “bad day” at work (49%).
For example, a Workhumansurveyof 1,000 full-time employees discovered that 61% of U.S. workers say they’re productive at work, but it comes at a cost. Eighty percent report they have “productivity anxiety” and over one-third have it multiple times a week.
Productivity anxiety is higher among Gen Z with 30% battling it every day and 58% having it numerous times a week. Meeting deadlines is the leading indicator of having “a good day” (68%), and making mistakes tops the list as a sign of a “bad day” at work (49%).
That moment when the knife slips, and you don’t feel anything yet, but you look down at your hand and realize what you’ve done…
Got a basketball stuck high up in a tree one time, I thought it would be a good idea to throw a rock at it to dislodge it. My dad’s car was under the tree and the rock went right through the windshield on the way down.
“We fear failure because we fear hating ourselves,” licensed mental health counselor and psychotherapist Leon Garber also toldBored Panda.“Self-hatred is a barrier to using failure to learn,” Garber, who runs the blogLeon’s Existential Cafe, added. “Whether to learn to be better or learn how to better understand our place in the world. Failure can teach us about ourselves as well as what we’ve done wrong; through it, we may realize that we aren’t special but, therefore, also human.”
“We fear failure because we fear hating ourselves,” licensed mental health counselor and psychotherapist Leon Garber also toldBored Panda.
“Self-hatred is a barrier to using failure to learn,” Garber, who runs the blogLeon’s Existential Cafe, added. “Whether to learn to be better or learn how to better understand our place in the world. Failure can teach us about ourselves as well as what we’ve done wrong; through it, we may realize that we aren’t special but, therefore, also human.”
I used to work the receiving dock and knew all the truck drivers. One was Bob, 6'6” and built like a NFL player.I transferred to the second plant about 4 miles down the road, and it was mostly new hires who didn’t know me or that I use to work receiving. One day Bob shows up because his load needed to be dropped at the 2nd plant. It was just about lunch time so he said he would wait.A bunch of us and Bob went to the bathroom to wash up for lunch. Bob sighed, and I said “Cheer up it could be worse.““It already is. My wife thinks she is pregnant.“Without hesitation I replied, “So, is it yours?“Everyone in the room had OO eyes and they were all thinking this guy has done f****d up and is about to be beaten to death.Bob just looked at me and said, “Yeah, that was the first thing I asked her.”.
I got a text from one of my higher ups in the military about needing to change barracks rooms and he had a b*y tone, so I immediately screenshotted it and sent it to my GF with the caption “look at this bh” but as soon as I hit “send” I saw I sent it back to him instead. The following days were not fun for me.
It was my first day as a help desk technician. I had been asked to change printer toner on the main printer in the company office.I pulled the black toner out, and I dropped it. The thing exploded like it was a new years' fireworks show. All over me, all over the floor, all over the printer….even 10 years later, I still think they’re digging toner out of the cubicle.I looked like one of those cartoon images where Elmer Fudd was given a bomb just before it exploded and then it blew up.Fortunately my boss was my friend, and he laughed his a*s off. Photos, email distribution, the works.I made my best effort to clean it up until the facilities guy shoved me aside and said “Let me do it.” with his nuclear powered backpack vacuum.I’m just glad it wasn’t the yellow I dropped. I didn’t want to look like I peed my pants all day.
Recommended a buddy of mine to work with me. Gave him extremely high praises because he truly does deserve it..He failed the d**g test..Last time I ever recommend anyone for a job.
When I accidentally sent a spicy text meant for my partner to my family group chat. The sheer panic that set in as I realized what I’d done was unreal.
Somehow when I was in high school (late 90s), everyone who still lived at home at the time had waterbeds, which made moving into a new house a bit of a pain in the as. I remember getting all of the beds set up and having the garden hose in the last one to fill it up. While this is happening, the van with the rest of the house in it arrived and everyone goes to start unloading.No one is watching this last waterbed fill.Several hours later over pizza, my sister comes into the kitchen and says that the carpet in the hallway is wet. And we all had a collective “Really f***d up” moment.The bed had overfilled to the point that the fill nozzle was like three feet over the sides of the frame, the mattress was horribly stretched, the hose had detached and was just dumping onto the floor. It took several hours to shopvac the water out of the carpet, but we were able to deflate and salvage the mattress at least.
This is pushing 25 years ago but I can’t unsee it. My best friend at the time, a bunch of us are walking home, hammered out of our tree and goes to do the dukes of hazard slide (that’s how old we are) across a parked car. Stupid yes. Immature yes. Drunk, good lord yes. He slides, but it’s so dry he stops and spins on the hood so that he’s looking directly into the windshield. Directly at the driver who is getting head at the time. I’ve never seen bigger deer in headlights eyes from two people at the same time in my life.
I had just started a new job as a registered sales assistant at a major firm. All fresh and excited with my new Series 7 I was ready to do trades.My supervisor handed me a client’s statement and told me to liquidate the holdings…not noticing some of the holdings were highlighted I proceeded to liquidate the entire account instead of about 25% of it. Worst part I didn’t realize it until she came over (she could see the trades in real time as I was selling) and asked me WHAT WAS I DOING?!I got red, heated and ran to compliance to get it fixed. Our compliance officer told me to dry my tears, take a walk and have a coke - he called it my rite of passage. Never had another trading error.
I just started a new cheffing job at my dream restaurant.I had been there for a couple weeks, and prepping in the back kitchen, when I went to put a cutting board back on the rack.I didn’t realize it was falling to the side, and it was too late when hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars of restaurant white dishware fell, shattering to the ground. plates, bowls, ramekins, trays, you name it.still can’t believe they kept me.
When I was around 8 years old I answered the phone to hear a family friend on the other end. She has a lot of kids and they’d make a ruckus during church (we were Mormons at the time) so I shouted to my mom, “Mom! The lady from church who cannot watch her kids is on the phone!!” My a*s got whooped and I had to say sorry to her that very next Sunday. But I still don’t feel bad about it cuz that’s how everyone described her behind her back🤷🏻♂️.
I came home to my parents house pretty drunk, they were asleep. I proceeded to slip on the stairs going down to my bedroom and in falling down ripped the entire 10 foot bannister off the wall.Somehow, they did not wake up.Told them the next day I just slipped and fell and it was an accidnet and they believed me. Helped my Dad put it back up the next day. Years later, I’m pretty sure he knew, but he’s never asked about it.
I thought it was a fart and s**t myself legit like two days ago.
So when I was in school, gay was a very popular word to describe things. Most people here will know what I mean when I say it was never said with the intent of ‘oh that is homosexual’ more of a ‘oh thats annoying’ thing (not that it makes the use of the word any better, but the intent when I say it is important here).Me and one friend thought we were peak hilarious when we swapped out gay for lesbian when we’d speak like that, peak 13/14 year old humour.Anyway one day I was in an argument with my older sister, we’d both used the word gay in the way I described growing up so in the heat of the moment I went to say ‘oh shut up, gay’ jokingly and instead said ‘oh shut up, lesbian’ With a bit more venom in the word than I anticipated.My sister was in a relationship with another woman at the time, absolute instant regret and horror when I said it, shock on her face too, instantly ends the conversation. It’s one of those things that just creeps back into your head every couple months. I eventually brought it up a year or two back and she says she has no memory of it and its hilarious. That s**t stewed in my mind for years and she didn’t care, the bastard.
I grew up in a religious and extremely strict house. I was not really ever allowed to hang out or sleep over at people’s houses. When I was 16, I made a friend at work and was allowed to hang out with her almost daily - despite my mother not liking her.One day, we started experimenting with me sneaking out to go on adventures with them. They didn’t have to sneak out because their parents were awesome. I have two stories from this time period. One night, I snuck out at around 10 pm after my parents had gone to sleep. At around 10:30, I started to get a weird feeling and asked my friend to drive me home. As I was walking around the back of my house (our normal entrance) I heard the door ‘click’ locked. My father had woken up and doublechecked the locks for no reason- locking me out. I stood there for a minute panicking before accepting my fate. I knocked on the door, he looked at me and said “where the f**k were you?” to which I replied: “I was looking at the stars from the front porch and I fell asleep”. He bought that one.A few weeks later, I snuck out again. It was winter and we were pulling people behind my friend’s car at the quarry in town. It was one of our favorite activities - and everyone had a lot of fun, no real injuries. It was 1am when her ‘94 Geo Prizm got stuck on some ice and none of us could get it moving. We had to call her dad and woke her whole family up. He came and picked us up in silence. Luckily, because he knew my mom was abusive, he dropped me at the top of the street and told me to stop making risky choices while I lived at home.Anyway, 16 was a good year.
I was starting a new job, and my manager was taking me around to meet all the people in the office.He took me into meet the big boss, the guy in charge, the Captain.He said, “And this is Jaen-Luc Picard”, and I laughed! He was the Captain!The Captain didn’t laugh.He was an actual Frenchman, and his name was Jean-Luc Bicard.He was sick of the comparisons, and struggled with it regularly. Apparently he had hotel reservations canceled on him because people thought it was a joke. He was very cold to me from then on.
My brother tells a tale of woe about the day his college gf was obviously just itching for a fight.They were hanging out when she complained about the weight she’d gained. He said he hadn’t noticed. She called him a liar. He maintained that he hadn’t noticed. Finally she said “DUDE! I’m exactly FIVE FEET TALL and I’ve gone from 100lbs to 110! That’s like 20lbs on a regular size person. How could you not notice? Either you’re lying or you don’t notice me AT ALL! So which is it?!“So bro finally, and reluctantly, said “I guess I can see it A LITTLE, but you look gr-“She immediately interrupted with “oh my god, I can’t believe you just called me fat!“This led to the biggest fight they’d ever had until their eventual break up a full two years later.
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I had just turned 18 and went to get my first tattoo. My mom hates tattoos, so I made sure to get it in a place she was unlikely to see, on my hip. Well, we both smoked cigarettes at the time, and she had run out. So when I got home, she rummaged through my purse to find some cigarettes, and she found the damn receipt for the tattoo. I hadn’t even been home for 15 minutes.
We were shooting for a small short film in my school a few months back. I was making a small music video alongside it. We finished shooting for both at the same time and I left them there for a few weeks, unedited because I got caught up with exams and was just plain stressed everyday.Two days before we were supposed to submit the short film and the music video, I sat on them to edit. I edited for about 12-14 hours across a 16 hour window and submitted them both, the short film to the short film competition and the music video to another one.Except….I didn’t.The music video went to the short film event, the short film went to the music video event. Needless to say, both of them tanked.
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I once got chlamydia and decided to tell my sexual partners from the past 6 months to get tested just to be sure. I opened up facebook and messaged one I had been with at just about the 6 month mark. After I clicked send, I realized I was logged into a different woman’s account that I was seeing at the present time who had used my computer and forgot to log out.I couldn’t help but sit there and shake my head at my mistake. And yes I had very awkward conversations with both of them after that.
When riding a sportbike at a local track I was at the end of a straightaway going at around 150mph when I grabbed the brakes and the front lever went to the bars - no pressure. I had just put new pads in and did not do a lap or five to make sure all was well. It wasn’t.
High school gym class, playing street hockey in the gym. One of the guys in my class picks up the net and kind of jokingly pretends to throw it at me. I say, “Hey, it’s all fun and games until you lose an eye!“He just quietly puts the net down and walks away, as I slowly remember, horrified, that he had lost an eye in a skiing accident a few years earlier. He had a glass eye, so it wasn’t always immediately obvious. I wanted to melt through the bleachers.
Went over the handle bars of my bike when I was a teen. I can still remember somehow flipping perfectly and hugging the tree I hit in front of me. I didn’t get seriously wounded just a few scratches some big some small but nothing deep. Made me reconsider all my life choices up till that point.
Used to do some amateur rock climbing. Got some loaner equipment, was taught the knots, and went out and had a lot of fun with friends. On the 3rd or 4th outing, I get my gear set up and ascend a 50 ft wall. Things go well and I reach the top when I realize that I tied the knot wrong. Had a deathgrip on the rope during the descent, and a firm shake of the knot made it come undone almost immediately, it was just the tension that held it together. The next time, I had friends double check the knot.
I was in grade 2. We were out for recess and a kid said “Hey! Look at this!” and did that thing with two basketballs where if you put one on top of the other and drop them so they hit the ground together, it sends the ball on top flying really high into the air.I’d never seen that before, I was amazed. Immediately picked the balls up and tried it myself. I gazed in awe as the basketball went flying through the air in a beautiful high arc.Amazement soon turned to horror as I watched the ball land directly on a teacher’s head, bounce off, and then land directly on the head of the grade 1 girl who was crying and getting a bandaid put on.Whoops.
I was in a fight on the school bus with another kid and I pushed his head into the window and it cracked his head open.Got the book thrown at me. He threw fists first though, but I didn’t mean for it to happen like that.I don’t really care he hit me first tbh. I would never hurt someone to that degree on purpose. It was a combo of adrenaline, and me not knowing my own strength as I was going through puberty. Straight up could have killed him or brain damaged him thank God I didn’t.
Coaching my young (7-year olds) son’s hockey team and after a few practices I just have to walk up to one of the mothers.tryingtobeopen: Excuse me but is there any chance you have a younger sister that went to XX high school?Mother: tryingtobeopen! It’s me!tryingtobeopen: :O
It was back in my school days when I was around 12 or 13. We had an exam, and I didn’t pass it because I was too lazy to study—like most of the time. But this time, I actually failed. On the day I got the exam back, I just put it in my backpack and went home. My mum knew I had a test the week before, so she asked me if I’d received the results. Since it was a Friday, I told her, “No, not yet,” because I wanted to enjoy a nice weekend. She didn’t ask any further, so I dropped my bag in my room and had an amazing Friday.The next day, I went out grocery shopping or something like that with my dad, while my mum stayed home to prepare lunch. While she was in the kitchen, she also decided to turn on the dishwasher and went looking for the lunchbox she’d given me for school. It was in my backpack. While looking for the lunchbox, she also found the failed exam… Well, I think you can all imagine how thrilled my mum was when I came back home with my dad :).
When I was 19 I was driving my dad’s Cherokee in the woods on a two track. It wasn’t anything too wild and I knew the way, but I unfortunately hit a stick or a stob or something that popped the tire instantly. I hopped out and looked for a spare, but there wasn’t one under the trunk cover (it may have been suspended under the chassis but I didn’t know to look there).I had to call my sick mom and wake her up so she could come pick me and my gf up out of the woods. Had to leave the jeep sitting there. The next day I rode with our mechanic down the trail so he could tow it out. He had to hop out and use a hatchet to cut out a small tree that was blocking the way of his tall tow truck. He almost threw out his back. I felt like s**t just watching himThe tire pop was an accident but the lesson learned that day was “make sure you have a spare, and know how to change it.”Edit: I didn’t find a jack either which made me think there was no spare anywhere. My dad bought it with beefy after market tires and I’m assuming whoever put those on was too cheap to buy a fifth spare tire.
Once sent a work email to my entire contact list instead of just my boss. Total panic mode when replies started flooding in. Learned to double-check recipients after that epic fail!
When I texted a nude to my fiancé, but realized too late it was to his work phone number rather than his personal.Thankfully he was able to delete it before any of his coworkers saw it.
Getting lost in the wilderness in the snow at night was pretty terrifying.
I had been in Mexico City and didn’t get sick from drinking small amounts of the tap water there. Then I got to a much smaller mountain town and swallowed some of the tap water while brushing my teeth, then went to my dorm room. There was a German woman laying on one of the beds, sick as f**k from drinking the tap water, and I knew I was totally screwed. I had really bad Montezuma’s Revenge for like 5 days.
Long ago, we’re all tripping balls in a crowded Mexican restaurant. One of my friends puts in a big mouthful of refried beans and says, “I hope this doesn’t make me fart in the car.” I answered “Beans don’t make ME fart!” just as a sudden and total lull had settled over the dining room. Everyone is staring at me, and the acid makes their eyes look huge. I just said meekly, “…rice does?” and wished I was dead.
Just yesterday I was coming home from the pre-dinner walk (5pm road rush time) with my husky, I got to my door and like a total f*****g idiot I shuffled the order of operations… I unclasped his leash then pulled out my keys to open my door, turned around and my boy was gone.Spend 20 minutes playing what seemed like a fun game of tag for him but was incredibly scary for me because he was weaving across busy roads.Finally got em but it was totally a TIFU and I was glad that we all got home safe for dinner.
On my first day at a new job, I was assigned the task of adding a user to an SFTP connection—something I’d done before without any issues. Confidently, I created the user, and everything seemed fine. But when I went to test it, the website was completely gone!It turned out that the new user directory I created had overwritten the main folder where the website was stored. EVERYTHING had been wiped out. I panicked and immediately called GoDaddy. Thankfully, they had a backup in place, and the site was fully restored within a couple of hours. Lesson learned… OOPS!
Totally low stakes but I find it funny now: foreign language spoken final exam. We were specifically instructed not to lie. I was horrible at this language. My professor was well aware that I was horrible at it.I was asked if I had ever been to a country that natively speaks this language. I was so bad I confused the words for yes and no and as a result I said yes. I had never been there. My professor was from there. Spent the whole rest of the time using the very few simple words and sentences I did remember to lie about what it was like in the country I had never been to.My brain likes to revisit that lovely final exam from time to time and I just have a little giggle about how awkward it was. How hard is it to remember the words for ‘yes’ and ‘no’? Also ever try lying in a foreign language you can barely grasp? 🫣.
Went outside late one night to smoke a joint in highschool. Parents asleep, both having to work early the next morning. Got too high and was just on zombie auto pilot going back into the house. Rang my own doorbell for some reason not thinking about it. Heard the sound from inside and instantly snapped back to reality realizing what I had just done. Dad comes to the door in underwear with a gun and isn’t happy to see my high as.Got grounded for awhile but I still crack up trying to figure out what I was thinking at the time. The peaceful nighttime outside high went out the window so fast as soon as I pushed the button leaving me in a stupor of oops, I just really f***d up.
Mines quite gentle.We were prank calling people from a new mobile I just got (late 90s).I didn’t realise but my friends called my parents house, I start breathing heavily and making weird noises and my dad instantly recognised me, said he could see me from the window (we were just down the street) and ask what I was doing.I hung up and ran out for site. Perfectly inconspicuously I might add.
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