I said ‘Hello hunnybun!’ to the chief executive
My new boyfriend (now husband) was also a colleague. His name began with “A” and one day I sent him a cheesy Google chat message saying “Hello hunnybun!”. Except I hadn’t sent it to him, I’d sent it to the boss of the whole company, whose name also began with “A”. I called his PA who had access to his emails to try and delete the message, but sadly there was nothing she could do. So I hid under my desk for the rest of the week. Hayley
I ended up on the runway, fashion photographers clicking away
Many years ago, aged 18, I was working at the Regent Hotel in Auckland and was given a tray of champagne flutes to distribute among the guests just as a fashion catwalk was taking place. Over-enthusiastic to do a good job, I took the wrong turn and ended up on the runway with photographers clicking away. I fell and there was a collective gasp from the room. I kept every glass on the tray upright but in falling my leg slid out from under me. The guests erupted into applause. However, the pain in my leg was so bad I had to slide myself over to a side table and try and haul myself upright. I was mortified. Another staff member came over and grabbed the tray while I hobbled off. I cleaned out my locker and left, never to return. Anonymous lobby lounge attendant, Regent Hotel
A horrific, pornographic photo popped up on the screen
My best friend had just given birth the weekend before and sent loads of cute baby photos to our group messenger. I was showing my manager the pictures on Monday morning when I swiped one photo too far back and a horrific, pornographic photo involving an obese woman and a lot of bananas captioned “it’s Friday cunts, let’s go bananas” popped up. Someone had sent it to the group ages ago as a joke and I’d completely forgotten. We both screamed and I started apologising profusely, saying I had no clue what it was doing there as this was my girly school group messenger! It was so cringe-worthy I was completely speechless and we were both completely shocked silent for a couple of hours. After I got a stern talking to about private affairs at work. Emma, recent graduate
A wall of foam rose 6ft high, forcing everyone to run for it
I was responsible for mixing the chemicals that processed colour slides in a professional photo lab. One afternoon I inadvertently picked up an old version of a chemical and mixed the reaction together. The result was a wall of foam that rose over 6ft high and moved like a tsunami out of the mixing room and into the main room forcing everyone to run for it. Luckily, my boss saw the funny side of it. Anonymous photo lab assistant
My mouth on fire, I had no other option
At an important meeting with some board members and others, a colleague had made me a cup of tea at the start of the meeting. Unbenownst to me, there was no milk in it. At the start of the meeting I took a big gulp of tea, but clearly without any cold milk the liquid was boiling hot.
My mouth on fire, I had no option but to spit the tea straight back out onto the carpeted floor. Not only was I embarrassed, but all of my mouth was burnt and swollen. I made a swift exit – fortunately my line manager followed me out and I was able to explain. I was packed off to the the on-site nurse and was advised to suck on some ice and take pain-killers. Anonymous HR manager
My boss said ‘Why do you have a plunger next to your computer?’
On my first day as an intern, I was asked if I could go out and get a plunger as we would need it later that day. Without questioning why, I went to buy a toilet plunger and put it in my desk next to my boss, feeling satisfied I had completed my first task of the day. Later on, my boss asked me to make coffee for the meeting we were having, but then looked to my desk and asked me why I had had a plunger sitting next to my computer all day. It turns out she had meant a coffee plunger for the cafetière! Claire, project intern in the arts
My trousers split open completely
I was in the lift at work heading down to the canteen with a mug of hot soup. It was lunchtime so the lift was full of people. For some reason the mug slipped from my hand, smashing on the floor and soup was thrown everywhere. All over me, over the people next to me and across the floor. In my red-faced embarrassment I bent down to pick up what was left of the mug. It was at that point my trousers split completely, from my backside to about half way down my leg. The whole lift burst out laughing. Needless to say I made a quick exit at the next available floor. Tristan Hardman-Dodd, local government officer
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