Brits reveal the most embarrassing mistakes they've ever made at work

We’ve all made mistakes at work. Some worse than others mind. Nick Leeson had a day to forget when he brought down Barings Bank on 16 January 1995. A single IT engineer was apparently to blame for BA’s recent £150m flight breakdown. And David Brent could probably have done without headbutting his new PA shortly after appointing her.

Yes, we’ve all had some embarrassing moments at work, and YouGov consulted their database to find out the juicy details of the times people have wanted the ground to open up and swallow them whole.

Examples included the classics like ‘forgetting someone’s name’, ‘assuming a woman was pregnant when she wasn’t’, ‘mistaking someone for the opposite gender’ and multiple instances of sending emails to the wrong person, including the evergreen favourite: the accidental ‘all staff’ email.

Here are some of the best responses to the YouGov survey:

6/10 on the embarrassment scale – this would definitely haunt you for a good few days.

8/10 – no one wants to hear you poo, but you want them to hear you poo even less.

3/10 – you can laugh it off. Bit of banter. Everyone has a fun time.

6/10 in terms of embarrassment, 9/10 in terms of it being absolutely mortifyingly dumb.

4/10 – it’d be hard not to laugh.

5/10 – definitely embarrassing, but a lot of people have done it.

2/10 – you’re giving people free fun, nothing too bad about that.

7/10 – yeah this is bad. This is really bad.

9/10 – noooooooooooooooooo.

8/10 – “Hi, sorry, we’re trying to bury grandpa, where are you?” “Ummm, do you want to know where I’m definitely not? Ikea. I’m definitely not in Ikea.”

7/10 – it’s a common one, but it’s still embarrassing.

9/10 – oh no.

3/10 in terms of embarrassment (no one will ever know), 10/10 in terms of how fucked up and gross it is.

3/10 – very dumb, but you’ll get over it.

8/10 – one of those things you remember every night when you go to sleep for the rest of your life.

1/10 – meh, who hasn’t smashed a few glasses in their time.

10/10 – fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

(Images: iStock/YouGov)