'18K gone in less than 30 seconds': 20 workers share the biggest mistakes they've made on the job

We all make mistakes, but these employees made errors so egregious that it nearly cost them their jobs. In fact, in some cases, these workers were straight-up fired. In other situations, they managed to maintain employment regardless of whether or not that was deserved. 

This thread was compiled from the following r/AskReddit thread, and while fully grown individuals made some of these mistakes, I cannot help but think about my interning days when reading these wild stories. The number of times my 18-year-old self heard the wrong things or made the wrong orders…. the number of times I thought it was better to assume rather than to ask… the number of times I shared too much or spoke too little… it's too much to count. 

Perhaps this is something we can all work to undo in 2024. I do not mean undoing mistakes that we are inevitably bound to make on the job, but rather I mean let's de-stigmatize the panic and judgment that surrounds the occasional error. Keep scrolling below for these stories. When you're done, check out this post about an employee who was told to get a better job offer.