Your Most Embarassing Work Moment

[hardygrrl]

or how hardygrrl lost her pants at work...


Monday, I'm wearing these pants that are a little loose in the waist. I should have worn a belt, but that would require foresight.


I get up to make a coffee run, unwittingly catch the hem on my heel and when I stand up...


My pants go down. Only to about 3/4 the way down my ass, and I had panties on. Only two people saw, but to quote the old shampoo commercial...

Two people saw my ass, and they told two friends, and they told two friends, and so on...

By the end of the day I been asked if I had the Monday Panties on, told it was a surprise I wore panties and christened the BBB..Black Bikini Bombshell


So, while you may have not shown your coworkers your undergarments, at least not by accident, what have you done?

[Crunchy Frog]

I once punched a pregnant co-worker (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=27274).

[blur]

At one of my former jobs, I worked with computer tapes. There were hundred of thousands of tapes. Every night, we would have to pick out ones that the data was expired on, and fill the tape drives so new data could be put on them. This involved thousands of tapes. Anyway we were having a contest to see who could get more of the tapes on the cart, to bring them out to the drives. I had well over 1000 on this one cart, which would have been a record. I'm wheeling the cart out to the computer floor, and hit a pen that had fallen on the floor. That was enough to get the tapes to start tipping, and like a giant tidal wave they began to fall to the floor. The noise it made was tremenous. It was right in front of all the computer terminals, so everyone saw. Even people on the other side of the room, which is huge and noisey, heard. It was shift change, so twice as many people were there. And I was the boss. We were finding tapes for months under the floor, and under tape drives. That was 5 years ago. I now work in the same building for a different company, and people still bring it up to me.

[Barbarian]

I hate to make this sound like "my story is better than yours" hardygrrl, but here goes anyway.

I had a pair of pants stolen at work. They were my bike rainpants (ie spandex and goretex), and they were hanging in a closet to dry-- at the end of the day I get ready to go home, and they're gone!

So I overreact and fire off an email to the entire company saying how despicable the person is who stole my pants. And the next day the offender comes forward and apologizes.

Turns out he thought they were his pair (even though he walked that day), and took them home-- but first he sent out an email to everyone in the company saying he had them.

The jokes about why he wanted to get in my pants petered out to a trickle after 3 months...

[Badtz Maru]

I recently had an interesting one.

Someone posted a backdoor to MSN Communities sites on another board I frequent. This basically allowed you to look at a random image from someone's private webspace - very entertaining, you get everything from family portraits to bizarre homemade porn. Anyway, someone posted a link to some funny pictures he downloaded from this site, but they were in .bmp format - I couldn't just view them with my browser, I had to open the file with ACDSee. I clicked on one and it started downloading, slowly. My boss came by my desk to go over my performance review so I covered up my windows with the database program we use. While he was talking to me the .bmp finished downloading, and apparently ACDSee, unlike my webbrowser, will automatically pop to the top of your windows when the image is finished loading.

While my boss is talking to me a big picture of old men performing oral sex on each other shows up on my screen. Boss says 'Woah'. I explained I had no idea what that image was when I clicked on it, but it was still embarassing.

The most embarassing, though, was a few years ago. One of my female coworkers would frequently get very erect nipples that were clearly visible through whatever she was wearing. One of her friends joked about it, would say 'Stacey is breastacular today'. I noticed that Stacey was breastacular, but I couldn't recall what the word her friend used for that, so I sent a popup message to her saying 'What was it you called Stacey when she is 'pointy'? Nippleriffic?'

Except I accidentally sent the message to everyone in the call center.

God, I get that heavy feeling in my chest just remembering it, and it was over 2 years ago.

[Hokienautic]

I work for a publishing company, and all our pubs are given four-letter codes -- not quite acronyms, but have something to do with the pub. ABOV is for Aboveground Storage Tanks, PLAN for a book about 401(k) plans ... and HAND for Section 504, which deals with handicapped access. I was working on something for HAND when someone came into my office asking if I could help out on another project, and I stupidly replied "sure, just as soon as I finish this HAND job." That got repeated, well, repeatedly.

[Zanshin]

Imagine this scene...

Zanshin is just out of school, 21 years old and green as a fresh-cut stick. He's just obtained his first professional position as an environmental engineer at a firm in Milwaukee. First day on the job, he's filling out his paperwork and reading employee manuals, all the fun stuff you usually do your first day at a new job. The boss asks him to run across the street and pick up some supplies at the office supply place. Zanshin and one of his co-workers leave the building to go pick up the supplies. This being his first real job, Zanshin is extremely self-conscious and eager to make a good impression.

Walking outside to the sidewalk, Zanshin does not notice that the curb at the edge of the sidewalk is freshly poured cement (and of course doesn't see all the signs and warning tape), and steps RIGHT the hell into it. Sinks all the way up to his knee. Brand new slacks -- ruined. One of his brand-new wingtips -- ruined. Co-worker almost falls over with the force of his laughter.

Had to walk around the rest of the day with cement coating his right leg to the knee. Endured many Mafia ('Hey, aren't they supposed to give you TWO of those when they throw you in the river?') jokes for the rest of the day. In the immortal words of Popeye, "How embarraskin'."

Nothing like starting your professional career off on the right foot, as it were.

[dlb]

way back in the back of beyond, when computers were huge things in air conditioned rooms, I was hanging around in said room waiting for a job to come out. I saw a gold dome on the ceiling and asked the operator what it was. He replied that it was a fire sensor. I asked how sensitive it was. He said he didn't know. I said (like a jerk), "Let's see." and put my palm on the sensor.

Of course the alarm went off. The entire building evacuated.

And I was known as "Hot Hands dlb" for the rest of the summer.

[caircair]

Geez, makes my "coming out of the ladies room with my skirt tucked into my pantyhose and running into the Director" story seem a bit tame!

[reloy]

Here's mine:

I was working as a pipefitter in a very remote section of Wyoming on a natural gas plant construction job. I went into the office trailer to order a new part and was talking to the boss. During the conversation I said "If I don't get to town this weekend and find something to do I'll probably kill myself." One second later, after seeing the pained look on the boss's face, I remembered that one of his best friends had committed suicide within the last week. I still get pains thinking about that verbal slip.

[DanBlather]

I just started a new job on the west coast. My supervisor and I saw an ad for a seminar on how to manage money. I went to it and he asked me about it the next day. For some reason I said "it was a waste of time, the presenter was just like a Mormon used car salesman". Later on I found out he was a Mormon.

Coming from the east coast I had never known any Mormons, and obviously had some prejudices. Now that I know a bunch of LDSers I realize how stupid my comment was.

[Hugh Jass]

Mine was the classic email forwarding gambit. The number two man in our company got his daughter a summer job with the company. She and I would flirt back and forth. One day, he sent an email to the whole company announcing that a person had been let go. Well, the person let go was my arch-nemesis, the thorn in my side for 3 years. Naturally, I was pretty happy to hear this. So, I sent his daughter an email saying "Your dad kicks ass!" and went on to say how I hated the guy he fired. Then I started the flirty stuff, asking her what she was wearing, and then trying to set up a date for that night.

Except.

I had hit reply to the email, and sent the message back to her father. Luckily it didn't go to the whole company. I didn't realize it at first, but had a nagging feeling something wasn't right. I checked the "sent email" folder and saw what I had done. I screamed to my coworkers that I had well and truly f*cked up this time. I sent him an email apologizing for the email, that I didn't mean any disrespect, that it was all a joke. Before I sent it,though, he sent me an email that just said "I don't think you meant to send this to me."

I told his daughter what happened and she laughed and laughed. As did my coworkers. I couldn't look at the father for 3 months. The next day, the daughter said they had talked about it on the way home. She said he said "I always knew that guy was a f*cking idiot."

[lieu]

I'd just moved to a new company to help as an on-site consultant. I was setting up new workstations and had to go into a routing closet to check network connections. Through with my work in there, I turned to leave and realized I was locked in the closet, well off the beaten path of any co-workers. All my yells and attempts to jimmy the door were for naught. I could have been there for days before anybody noticed.

So I began unhooking phone lines.

Finally, enough of the company's communications network was disabled that a group came to investigate what in the Sam hell was going on. Don't let anyone tell you that comming out of the closet isn't humiliating as heck.

[bernse]

I actually went to work (and worked for a while) with no pants. I never put them on when I got dressed.

Swear to god its true.

[LifeOnWry]

I woke up very late for an important job interview, and like most times when you're late for something, everything else in the world conspires to go horribly awry. I was leaving the house after a hurried shower-and-makeup session, and I tripped on my way to the car. I didn't go down, but I did stumble. Got into the car and drove like mad, ensuring that I'd hit every red light on the way. Went into the building and got onto the elevator when I stumbled again, lurching into a (fortunately) kind woman who merely steadied me by grabbing my arm.

I get into the interview room with SECONDS to spare. I do some deep breathing, sit down in the chair across from the interviewer, cross my legs demurely and see that I have on one navy blue shoe and one black shoe -- and it's not like they were identical except for color. Nope, the black one is a plain pump, and the navy blue one has a gold buckle and a heel about a helf-inch higher than the black one.

I didn't get the job, which was a Good Thing, because I don't think I ever could have faced those people again.

[lieu]

I hope you carpool. They'd get my vote for comedians of the year.

[delphica]

My first job was at a family run company, as the secretary to the company president. His son, who was a few years older than me, would occasionally make a "prank" call to the office. I think he thought this was funny, but it annoyed the heck out of me.

So anyway, one day I get an obviously prank phone call from someone claiming to be Howard Cosell. This was the straw that broke the camel's back, and I yelled at him and then slammed the phone down.

Of course, as luck would have it, it actually was Howard Cosell. Turns out that he knew my boss from years and years ago. Yikes. Who would have thunk that Howard Cosell would sound exactly like Howard Cosell?

[xizor]

Originally posted by caircair
Geez, makes my "coming out of the ladies room with my skirt tucked into my pantyhose and running into the Director" story seem a bit tame!

Only if you're a woman, if you are a man that story needs more details :D

[Moirai]

Gee, how about an hour ago?

The husband talked me into a little afternoon workplace nookie this afternoon, and while we're on the couch, the boss calls in. Did I mention that I work for his mom?

I guess it could have been worse, she could have walked in...

[Kate_W]

I leave my office and realize that I left something. In the few seconds that took, my boss had gone back into his office (he had to go through my office to get to his). I didn't realize he was there, and came back in singing "Dream a Little Dream of Me." He about busted a gut laughing when I got to the "Say nighty-night and kiss me..." line.

[Bluesman]

No way.

It took me three years into our marriage before I could tell it to Lucretia.

Hell no. You folks are never gonna hear this one, because I still want to fall into the center of the Earth every time I think about it.

God DAMN.

[pegleg]

Bluesman!!!
That's just cruel!

[Bluesman]

It was SO bad, that whenever I think about it, I like to imagine that the people that were there (mostly sympathetic, definitely NOT LAUGHING AT ME), have all died, and my humiliation will remain secret forever.

Ain't that AWFUL? :(

[Moirai]

Dammit, man, spill it!

[cher3]

Mine was back when I was working as a bank teller for the summer. At one branch where I worked we had a change rolling machine in the back room and I was rolling up some change that someone had brought in. (Yes I'm old enough to have worked at a bank when they still did that.) Anyway, I leaned over to get a better look at what I was doing and didn't notice that my hair was getting rolled up in the mechanism as well. It was very long at the time, so it got good and stuck in there.

Well, screaming in a bank is not a good idea, and at least I had the presence of mind not to. After a minute or so I managed to attract the attention of one of the other tellers with frantic whispering and we got me untangled without leaving too much hair behind. I had a funny little tuft at the back of my neck for a long time, though.

[jimmykent]

I have this habit of shaking an orange juice bottle before opening it as most people probably do. This one time after shaking and opening the bottle and taking a drink, I set the cap back on without screwing it tight. Then before my next big swig, absent-mindedly, I grabbed the bottle and shook it -- hard. I ended up with orange juice practically from head to toe, dripping off my glasses, in my hair, ugh! My office mate practically choked to death from laughing so hard.

[BobT]

I was working the adult reference desk in a suburban public library. A mother came with her daughter and needed some children's books. So I walked the two of them over. While I was walking over, I ripped out quite a stinker. The little girl (about 5-6) held her nose and waved her hand in front of her face as she was unfortunately directly in the line of fire.

Her mother looked shocked also, but mainly over the way her daughter asked. I finished my assistance to them by saying, "Umm, look over there."

[freshmeat]

I was sitting at my desk when the urge to purge came on fairly strong. I normally avoid the work poop if at all possible, but there was no way this puppy was stayin in the cave for the rest of the day. I go to the bathroom, put all the protective gear in it's proper place, and sit down to do the deed.

To my utter horror, I look down to see that my unit was pointing straight out and that I had urinated all down the back of my pants.

I snuck out of the office without anyone seeing me, thank god, and drove home (I only lived about 5 minutes from work at the time). I took a shower, changed my pants, and drove back to work. Surprisingly, no one even noticed I was gone.

FM

[BoBettie]

I originally posted this on the day it happened, just over a year ago. I still cannot look the maintainence guy who cleaned it up in the face.

"I was at work today (my NEW job...I've only been there TWO DAYS) and I...**ahem** used the restroom. (read: number 2. And I had chili last night. Yikes)
I flushed, then **all of a sudden** (and I mean FAST) the toilet starts filling up. I open the door and try to run out fast so no one sees me, and someone else is coming in (a girl who works in manufacturing). As I meet her face to face in the doorway, the toilet OVERFLOWS, and I mean with force. I had to run out the door so it wouldn't go on my shoes!

So I want to just die, and she steps out of the bathroom and hollers ACROSS the manufacturing floor (while I'm standing right there, probobly looking like I wanted to die)"Joe! Hurry! There's a flood in the ladies room!"

I slunk away and hid for a few hours. When I came out the bathroom was cleaned up and the door was standing open (to dry the floor, I guess.) The only thing that keeps me going is that MAYBE they didn't tell everyone in the place that the new girl took a dump and overflowed the toilet. (Yeah, right- as if they didn't tell)

Later I had to pass the guy in the hall and act like nothing happened. I just wanted to crawl in a hole.


Zette
Why, oh WHY couldn't it have just been pee???WHYYYYYYY?
All day I kept thinking of the restaurant scene in "Deuce Bigalo, Male Gigalo" where the manager says "We got a problem in the ladies room- there's shit everywhere!"

[Silver Fire]

Zette, I still say that was one of the funniest chat moments ever. :)

[Annie-Xmas]

The story I thought I'd never tell anyone:

I had a huge boil on my butt that would not burst. The Big Boss calls me into his office one hot summer's day, I sit down on the vinyl chair and *burst*! Blood and pus goes through my beige linen pants and onto the vinyl chair. I am literally stuck there, going over things with him and too embarassed to point out my predicament.

A half hour later, we're finished. I take a Kleenex from his desk, wipe my face, stand up, sit down, say "It's hot in here" and wipe off the chair. Then I edge into the nearest bathroom, take off my pants, rinse them, put them back on, go back to my chair and sit for two hours while they dry. To this day, I've convinced myself that nobody noticed.

[Czarcasm]

Bluesman, if you don't tell the tale, I'm gonna change your name to Blueballs! ;)

[Gatopescado]

aw, what the hell!

during my college years, i was working in a nevada casino as a waiter in a nightclub that served dinner between 3pm and 10pm. since it was not a real resturant, the kitchen was WAY far away. anyway, one night i was cruising down a long hallway with a plate of nachos when i spyed a lone chip way off by itself. i grabbed it and chowed it down. at the end of the LONG hallway was swinging doors that led into the resturant area. i hit the doors and at that same moment, noticed the long string of cheese stretching from the customers plate to the corner of my mouth!

runner up:

sexy fed ex lady drops some boxes off where i work. she tells me that they are sticky from maple syrup that was spilled in the back of her truck. i say "i dont want to touch them and get it on my hands", so she replies "well, then lick them clean". i honestly thought she had left the building when i joked to my co-worker, " she just invited me to lick her syrupy box!".

she was right behind me.

[Hello Again]

I work with an eeditorial group and our staff meetings always end up being amusing and fairly raucous. (also, sometimes the word "glossalalia" is used).

This one week, we were discussing some editorial descision -- I really don't remember what. I think it had to do with the Pearl harbor movie, actually. Some people were pro, some were con. My one coworker said "well, if we DON'T do it, we're going to look like..." and trailed off.

"Pussies!" I helpfully added, bringing all conversation at the table to an abrupt halt.

Amazingly, I did not *actually* die of embarassment.

[ruadh]

He was more embarrassed than I was, but walking into my boss's office just as he was scratching his balls was a bit uncomfortable.

That, and the time I (thought I) put an annoying client on hold, bitched about what a moron he was and then realised I'd actually put him on speakerphone :o

Fortunately (for me!) he was a hard-of-hearing moron ...

[toshirodragon]

I was working the phones at Pizza Hut and had a hell of a head cold. I had just finished clearing my throat and was taking a drink when the phone rings. "I'll get that soon as I finish swallowing" I yell... shit had to pick up one of my male co-workers off of the floor...

[jack@ss]

It was right after Clinton was elected president and I was installing cabinets with a guy named Fred Olsen. We were talking about Bush's term as president, and I said something about how I thought it was hilarious that he'd vomited on the prime minister of Japan. Fred is about 5'5", light complexion, stocky (huge and muscular), dark curly hair and broad features. With a last name like Olsen, I figure his father is of scandinavian origin and with his build and features, I figure he might have some Mediterranean or polynesian ancestors. He seemed mildly put off by the remark and I make a mental note that he might be a republican.

After work we're heading back to the shop and Fred says he has to stop by his parent's house. His father is a silver-haired giant with a pale, ruddy complexion. His mother is a petite, soft-spoken, gracious and charming woman from Okinawa.

After we finish our tea by Yoko's koi pond, we get in the truck and head for the shop. I say:
"Fred, I'm really sorry about that remark about Bush's vomiting. I didn't mean"..

Fred cuts me off with "You thought I was mexican, right?"

[Another Primate]

A woman at my workplace has an annoying habit -- jumps in at the end of a long e-mail exchange, obviously just skimming, with answers that either are tangential to the issue at hand or contradict a decision the rest of us agreed on halfway through the exchange. (She also tends to show up 20 minutes late for meeting, apologizes for being late, and says, "Would you bring me up to speed?". I've been known to say, "No, sorry, but you can call me after the meeting." But most people are too polite, so they'll waste our time recapping.)
Anyway, here's my e-mail embarrassment: She did her thing again to a long e-mail exchange, requesting something that would have caused more work for my department, and that I thought was a stupid request. I hit reply, meaning to fill in three names of folks I knew were also frustrated by her e-mailing style, typed in "I intend to ignore this latecomer, how about you?" and, yep, you guessed it, sent it back to only her.
Of course, I apologized right away. She was a good sport about it, which improved my opinion of her quite a bit.
That was a year ago, and I still feel crummy about my mistake.

[moggy]

This happened last year when I was working at a preschool, in the afternoon. The afternoon staff had to do something called "Music and Movement" which meant dancing to music, or playing musical chairs, or something like that. It was stuffy, so I had the door to the outside open. The classroom was connected to the other pre-k room by a door in the corner- the rooms also shared a porch and steps out to the playground.
So I had a tape on, it was one the kids really liked where it's kinda like a guided visualization, we're all pretending that we're astronauts and we went on a spaceship and we're exploring space. I'm standing at the front of the class, and the tape just told us to pretend that we're floating in space outside the ship...I'm standing there with my arms and legs out, pretending to drift through space...I look up, and see my husband standing in the open door! I was SO EMBARASSED! He had stopped by for some reason, and had gone through the other classroom to get outside because that's where he thought I was. He laughed at me and said I was "so cute" especially because I blushed like crazy. He still teases me about "floating through space" every once in a while.

[eirroc]

originally posted by bernse
Pants stories
I actually went to work (and worked for a while) with no pants. I never put them on when I got dressed.

Swear to god its true.
Oh my bernse tell us the whole story. :eek:

[Hugh Jass]

Originally posted by Bluesman
It was SO bad, that whenever I think about it, I like to imagine that the people that were there (mostly sympathetic, definitely NOT LAUGHING AT ME), have all died, and my humiliation will remain secret forever.

Ain't that AWFUL? :(


Not to pressure you (too much), but right now, that incident has power over you. Things I've kept hidden have been more embarrassing to me than the things that are public knowledge, regardless of the seriousness of the issues.

Just my $0.02. Do as you see fit.

[Margarita]

I was working for a beer distributor, and the building had a 2-story glass vestibule at the entrance. The state sales director for this major beer company was visting for the day, and was right behind me as I entered the building. My cute, new wraparound skirt somehow got one of the ties entangled in my purse strap, and it came untied and dropped as I climbed the stairs in front of the Big Brass. He got quite an eyeful of my purple panties as I tried to grab the skirt and salvage some dignity.

Now I make sure to safety pin those wraparounds.

[whistlepig]

300 people in a conference room. The speaker, who holds power over us all, is interpreting a policy. This policy interpretation means that I will now have to drive 260 miles round-trip to attend a 15 minute weekly meeting. On bad roads, in the winter, at 30 below. If I pick up a phone, I can get the skinny on the meeting and give my approval/non-approval to any decisions. But no, the policy is that I have to be there in person.

I'm not going to stand for it and will openly violate the policy. I can't get fired for doing so. I stand up, and in my deepest, strongest voice, start to declare my freedom and intentions to all 300 people in the room, and particularly to the speaker. But I"m so upset that about 1 sentence in, I start to stammer, something I rarely do. This in turn makes me even angrier, so that in frustation and in an attempt to clear my head/tongue I say, "F!@#". Out loud. In a voice that makes a waitress drop a tray of dishes in the back of the room.

I managed to finish my statement. No one spoke to me at break or said anything about it afterwords. Most of them looked at me like scared deer looking at a mountain lion.

I never followed the policy and never got in trouble.

[Wiwaxia]

I was still a student, and I had got this job at the most prominent research hospital in my country. I had just started working with my first research project. After a few weeks, I got invited to a research meeting with all the countrys' leading scientists in my field. The meeting was not for students, but my supervisor promised he would bring me as a personal guest. I was so excited! My first real contact with the world of science! And an opportunity to meet all those people I'd only heard and read about!

The meeting started with an informal lunch. A kind of typical long, narrow sandwich was served on an oval plate. Most of the sandwich consisted of the infamous national dish bethroot-sallad. It's made of cubed bethroots and mayonaisse, very red and very fatty. I don't like the stuff, so I put it away in one end of my plate.

The lunch presentation was held by the professor who was chairman for meeting. It was extremely interesting, and I was totally absorbed. Indeed, I was so absorbed I didn't notice my plate had slided out to the very edge of the table. When I pushed my knife to cut through the thick sandwich, that part of the plate was hanging in the air, and somehow, I managed to make a ballista out of it. The bethroot sallad flew away in a nice ballistic curve, landing with a splash at the table inches from the professor. Of course he had a white shirt. The room went totally silent. I wanted to vaporise, but there was no escape, my plate had fallen to the floor so it was obvious who was the assaulter. The chairman looked at the heap of bethroot sallad with a peculiar expression, then at me. Then he said: "well, after this little attack, I'd like to continue with..."

The good thing was that everybody recognised me after this! :)

[Rilchiam]

Originally posted by lieu
I'd just moved to a new company to help as an on-site consultant. I was setting up new workstations and had to go into a routing closet to check network connections. Through with my work in there, I turned to leave and realized I was locked in the closet, well off the beaten path of any co-workers. All my yells and attempts to jimmy the door were for naught. I could have been there for days before anybody noticed.

So I began unhooking phone lines.

Finally, enough of the company's communications network was disabled that a group came to investigate what in the Sam hell was going on. Don't let anyone tell you that comming out of the closet isn't humiliating as heck.

Ouch! I got trapped behind a revolving file shelf (long story) but I wasn't there for more than a few minutes. Funny thing is, the woman who let me out was the one most people didn't get along with. I'd never snapped back at her, as most people did, and she was very gracious and didn't make fun of me afterwards. Though I told everyone anyway because *I* thought it was funny.

Now, my story. I was rushing to get ready in the morning, and had to use a...feminine product. At the last minute, I realized I hadn't put it in properly, and changed it. All systems go, I thought, and headed off to work.

"What's that?" cow-orker asked, pointing to my hand.

"Hot chocolate," I mumbled, scurrying off to the powder room to wash the grimed-in menstrual by-product from my left thumb and forefinger.

[Rilchiam]

And I sure would like to hear bluesman's story!

[Viscera]

Well, we had a new person working with us, and after the training period, he would be certified to be responsible for the shift (usually 2 people on shift, both knowing how to do anything that can pop up).

Anyway, after he had been certified, I noticed he had been making STUPID mistakes that made us look bad to our customers. Mentioned it to another co-worker, and we fired off an email to our supervisor explaining the situation, and why we couldn't let it continue (it was a pretty scathing email). So our supervisor replied to us, and he CC'ed the co-worker who was the source of the problem. Problem was, supervisor also had the original email that we sent.

/crawl under rock

This was about a year and a half ago, and I get along pretty well with this co-worker now.

Vis

P.S. Bluesman, you can't just put out a feeler like that, without ever intending to go through with the whole story. Spill it! :)

[BoBettie]

Oh, I forgot about the time when I was working third shift at the hospital (in the pharmacy).

I was delivering meds up to the women's unit, where all the post-delivery moms stay. Imagine how dog tired these women are! It's 4am, and I deliver the meds. I was really tired that night, and when I got into the elevator (right by the rooms), I hit the basement button.

Only it wasn't the basement button, it was the emergency button. A piercing siren sounded, and I couldn't make it stop. It stopped on it's own an agonized 60 seconds later, and I had to get off the elevator and walk down the stairs. Apparently hitting the emergency switch disabled the elevator until someone adjusted it with a key or some such.

The nurses glared at me like you would not believe, and I felt awful for those poor women who probably thought the world was coming to an end!

Zette

[etc]

I was assigned to oversee the activities of an outside contractor who had been brought into our building to do some mechanical work. I was addressing him by the name on a patch over the pocket on his coveralls all day. It finally dawned on me that his name wasn't Otis, he was the Otis elevator repairman. Doh!


etc.