Messing up at work?

[Zerkalo]

Have you ever messed up something at work, made mistakes that got you in trouble?

A couple of things I've done recently for the same agent that gives me a lot of work that have been playing on my mind.

1) Did a checkout inspection for them. Tenant had done the house up a bit and I remember from doing the inventory he'd left it in better condition than what he received it, so I whizzed round with the inventory and stated a lot of things were 'as per inventory'. Turns out the landlord had sold on a few items from the shed, strimmer, lawnmower, leaf blower etc and I put 'as per inventory' so he wasn't very happy about that. He also wants me to check the loft. The loft wasn't on the inventory so I didn't. Standard procedure for me. I've been doing a few 'viewings' at this house so been there a few times and there's no pole to access the loft hatch. Landlord is adamant it's under the stairs so wants me to go back to check the loft.

2) Big mistake this one. I had to hand over keys to a tenant and part of that is you have to do a 'right to rent' check. This agent never tells the tenant to bring ID so it's 50/50 if the tenant actually brings any. It's meant to be a Passport or a Driving License and some other form of ID like Birth Certificate or Utility Bill. I was in a bit of a rush at this one, had driven all the way to Coventry to do the job, so when the tenant pulled out his British Army ID card I just photographed that, handed over the keys and moved on as I couldn't be bothered to have to tell him I couldn't hand over the keys.

Both my fault and could be costing me future work with this agent as they're pretty angry about it. Anything you've done similar? Messing up at work?

 

[mickthechippy]

painter I knew burnt down the Nye hall at the duke of yorks military school

carried on burning off old paint to late in the day to do a fire check afore leaving

next thing he knows, his guvnors ringing him at 2 in the morn

 

[Zerkalo]

That's a proper mistake. Reminds me of a story my dad told me about working at Cadbury. They used a local river for cooling and there was a sluice gate they had to open. Dad did it for the first time, winds the thing round, and whoosh, all the water pours out while the bloke who usually does it shouts "What are you doing?". Turns out it sent a mini tidal wave down the river through Bournville.

 

[spanky]

I cant say too much, but I was responsible for a mistake that lowered the share price of a FTSE100 company.

 

[Zerkalo]

I cant say too much, but I was responsible for a mistake that lowered the share price of a FTSE100 company.

Ouch! I never got that high up to have that sort of responsibility but found everything too strict and audited at the FTSE100 I worked for, a bank that was doing a merger with the Rothschild owned Five Arrows investment company, basically their investment in Bin Lorries and Banking arm of investment.

 

[Dave]

All said and done if you haven't or don't drop a bollock at work at some point then you are not human.

The best way around it is to apologise, put procedures into place to ensure they don't happen again, and share that with your client.

 

[The Landlord]

Everyone messes up at work at some point.

I know of some plasterer who took somebody else's scaffolding

 

[Zerkalo]

My inventories are the best they will get from any company that's why they come to me. I have disclaimers in place to say it might not be accurate. But the agent is rightly a bit sore from these couple of incidents especially the second one, I knew I was messing up as I did it but still did. Have had more than one agent ask me to work directly for them as an employee and they come back so must be doing something right.

The last time I messed up was just after an agent in Worcester asked me to work for them, had a few job interviews with them just for me to test the water. Told them I prefer doing it for myself and turned down the job, then left a fridge open which burned it out, they then accused me of sabotaging their work so I lost it on the phone to the guy and that was the last I heard of them.

 

[mickthechippy]

All said and done if you haven't or don't drop a bollock at work at some point then you are not human.

The best way around it is to apologise, put procedures into place to ensure they don't happen again, and share that with your client.

Lessons will be learned !

 

[MunchMyStump]

I was refurbishing a bathroom and fitted shut off valves to all the water feeds in there. It was on the 3rd floor and the stop cock was in the cellar. Went all the way down and turned the water back on, The valves I fitted were in the "open" position!!! ?
Never have I run so fast downstairs in my life!!

 

[crumpercatcher.]

The mon that’s never made a mistake is a mon that’s never done owt.

 

[OldTaff]

There isn’t enough storage on this server to list the amount of times the f*@k up fairy visits our site

We have a grain store - so many silos, conveyors & slides that could be set wrongly on the panels.

Mixers - manual panels control the tipping scales, even though they are double checked and signed off the lads still made 12t of a premium product to the wrong recipe last week

Picking mistakes in the warehouses - don’t get me started - that would be why I drove 7.5hrs to Cheltenham and back yesterday in the works van to spend 10mins dropping off half a ton of feed to a very very prestigious customer

As for me I’ve screwed up sooooo many times it amazes me I’m still there but as they say - to err is human, to completely stuff up takes a computer

 

[MunchMyStump]

I was working for YTV at the time on "A touch of Frost" We had an episode that was set in an old farm house and the designer wanted the wallpaper changing. In comes the decorator and duly starts hanging new wallpaper, a climbing rose pattern. I walked in after a good hour and happened to notice the climbing rose pattern was climbing south as in upside down! Dave, what's wrong with the wallpaper I asked. Whacha mean? It's a climbing rose isn't it I asked. Yeah... The penny dropped!! Too late, the paper had been printed to order and there was not enough to re do it all... upside down wallpaper it was.
The director noticed it straight away but actually loved it as it added a bit of quirkiness.
Said decorator was never allowed back on location though lol

 

[MunchMyStump]

Norway would send a Christmas tree over to York Minster every year in order to commemorate the help and sacrifice given in WW2.
We had a live feed going out that evening but the tree was 6' too tall. The standby chippy was told to shorten it by 6' so it would fit.
We went for a quick cuppa whilst he sorted it only to come back and find he had chopped 6' off the top of the tree!

 

[Dave]

I was once working on the third floor of a printing works and we were prepping to remove a wall. I had to move some rinsing tanks so disconnected what I thought was an isolating valve, the ball had snapped off inside it, the pipe pulled free and mains pressure water shot out.
The pipe would not go back in the valve, there was £1/2million worth of computerised printing equipment on the floor below, and there was only me and one other guy in the place - he was on the ground floor

The only thing I could do is try to stem the water with the ball of thumb whilst scream my head off to get his attention. When he did he strolled upstairs, stood in the doorway and said 'whatsupp?'

"turn the chuffin water off !!"
"How?"
"In the chuffin cellar!"
"Where?"
"FFS do it and stop effing about!"

He must have drifted down the stairs that slowly I'm sure we missed a tea break, finally turned the stop tap off, and luckily the water didn't flood the floor beneath, the ceiling plaster soaked most of it up.

I ended up with a perfectly circular cut on my hand where I'd been pushing it against the pipe lol

 

[mickthechippy]

I was once working on the third floor of a printing works and we were prepping to remove a wall. I had to move some rinsing tanks so disconnected what I thought was an isolating valve, the ball had snapped off inside it, the pipe pulled free and mains pressure water shot out.
The pipe would not go back in the valve, there was £1/2million worth of computerised printing equipment on the floor below, and there was only me and one other guy in the place - he was on the ground floor

The only thing I could do is try to stem the water with the ball of thumb whilst scream my head off to get his attention. When he did he strolled upstairs, stood in the doorway and said 'whatsupp?'

"turn the chuffin water off !!"
"How?"
"In the chuffin cellar!"
"Where?"
"FFS do it and stop effing about!"

He must have drifted down the stairs that slowly I'm sure we missed a tea break, finally turned the stop tap off, and luckily the water didn't flood the floor beneath, the ceiling plaster soaked most of it up.

I ended up with a perfectly circular cut on my hand where I'd been pushing it against the pipe lol

we all done that

went over to Deal one day to do a bit of remedial on new builds

one was a squeaky caberboard bedroom floor, had been paslode nailed down, no glue

only thing to it was to screw it all down

found the plumbing gang asked em where the pipe runs were and one come showed me the mesurements out from the wall, no wuzz, black marker then the chalk lines, 3 million screws later, Michaels finished

stuffed the tools in the holdall and off down the stairs, got to the front door and thought sheet its raining, problem was I wasnt out the door !

17 screws in one run of pipe !

 

[Dave]

I once had to do some work in a bathroom on a Saturday - both fatal
Finished the job, went to walk out and the floor squeaked so I banged in a screw to the side of the board just being helpful like - straight through the central heating pipe

Left screw in, downstairs, into garage, cut a length of hosepipe off the customer's pipe, and opened the drain valve.
Managed to drain the first floor and loft down, lifted the board, cut the punctured piece of pipe out, luckily had my plumbing gear in the van, soldered in a new section, filled the system back up, bled the old rads, screwed the board back down - you guessed it, put a screw in the same hole and pierced the new piece of pipe ?

 

[Silverfisher]

Nothing major that sticks in the mind but have definitely made mistakes that have cost time, money or both. I’d be very surprised if anyone hasn’t.

 

[The Landlord]

I once had to do some work in a bathroom on a Saturday - both fatal
Finished the job, went to walk out and the floor squeaked so I banged in a screw to the side of the board just being helpful like - straight through the central heating pipe

Left screw in, downstairs, into garage, cut a length of hosepipe off the customer's pipe, and opened the drain valve.
Managed to drain the first floor and loft down, lifted the board, cut the punctured piece of pipe out, luckily had my plumbing gear in the van, soldered in a new section, filled the system back up, bled the old rads, screwed the board back down - you guessed it, put a screw in the same hole and pierced the new piece of pipe ?

Did that meself last year when I was fitting a carpet in the g'daughters bedroom. Thought I'd fix the squeaky boards. It had to be the last screw that went through the bloody pipe, didn't it?
Unfortunately I'm no plumber & it cost me £90 to get it fixed.

 

[Dave]

We did some work on a rental and the lad screwed some loose boards down and hit a 22mm gas pipe that was running in line with the edge of the board.
Not a problem, gas turned off, meter disconnected and blanked waiting for test and reconnection, so we lifted the board to replace the section only to find someone had done it before further along the pipe and just wrapped insulation tape around it

If the lad hadn't hit the pipe we'd have never known and at some point in the future the pipe would have leaked into the floor voids - boom!