Ural Residents Tell of Their Most Awkward Workplace Moments

Work is never without its awkward moments. Some accidentally spill tea on a colleague, others gossip about the boss when he«s standing right behind them... It seems such situations have happened to all of us.

Readers of E1.RU have told us their awkward workplace stories. We«re sharing them with you in the hope nothing like this ever happens to anyone again.

«Many years ago, I was discussing a colleague in a negative light... I turn around, and she»s standing right behind me and heard everything... I never did that again. I remember it to this day.«

«At my old job, the only microwave was in the neighboring department. I asked to heat up my soup, which was in a glass jar—a nice fatty soup. I take the jar out of the microwave, and the bottom immediately falls off. Literally everything was in my soup. That was the first and last soup I ever brought in a glass jar.»

«Just the other day, a colleague congratulated me on the New Year and gave me a gift (he»d gone to the trouble of finding something that would be useful for my hobby). And I had no gift for him... So awkward! But I«m definitely going to bake or make him something and give it to him for no reason, when the chance arises.»

«I scalded my friend»s thigh with boiling water... by accident.«

«Once, I came for a job interview. After speaking with the administrator, I opened the door to the corridor sharply, preparing to go for the final interview with the general director, and with all my might, I slammed the door right into that very director. He was just approaching the door; I hit him hard. I didn»t end up taking the job there, but for other reasons.«

«In a work email to a colleague, autocorrect changed »Yulia« to a similarly sounding three-letter swear word. I didn»t notice and sent it. A classic blunder.«

«Once, by mistake, I sent an email not just to my entire department, but to all upper management. The email began with the phrase, »Hey there, champs« (lit. »Great job, goldfinches«).»

«A colleague asked me to toss him a key, and I was up on a height. So I tossed it. After that, the colleague went on sick leave and got a reprimand for not wearing a hard hat.»

«A long time ago, working at a magazine editorial office, I sat down at my desk with a cup of tea and accidentally knocked the cup over onto the UPS (uninterruptible power supply). At that very moment, the designer was laying out the issue. Deadlines were burning, as usual. It was already late evening and, of course, the edits from the last couple of hours weren»t saved, and the computer instantly shut down from the water. Oh, how that designer cursed at me then.«

«Once, the chief engineer went on vacation. At that time, there was a mass transition from Windows 7 to 10, and the IT guys asked for his computer urgently. I handed over the system unit. They asked if they should clean the disk. I shrugged and said, »Well, probably, yes.« So they cleaned it. That»s how they formatted the chief engineer«s hard drive... In the end, they managed to recover the data for him later, but a certain »aftertaste,« so to speak, remained... Over ten years have passed, and they still bring up that incident with me. Jokingly, of course, but it wasn»t funny at the time.«

«Once I said the phrase »understand and forgive« with the corresponding pronounced »r« sound (in the style of Borodach from the show »Nasha Russia« – »Our Russia«) to a director who has a speech impediment with her »r«s. I thought I would die of shame.»

Earlier, residents of Yekaterinburg shared their most awkward stories from office parties. After some of them, people even faced dismissal.