We all have bad days. Things don’t go our way, we forget to fuel up the car, our favorite shirts have a rip and your boss is asking you to come in on your day off. What can often help is a little bit of perspective, because as bad as you might have it, someone else could be doing worse.

That’s why we have gathered some examples of folks having some of the worst days at work possible. So prepare yourself for either a good amount of schadenfreude or sympathy as you scroll through. Be sure to upvote your favorite posts and comment about your worst day at work below. 

#1 Nice Job

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#2 Guess Someone’s Gonna Be Late For Work

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#3 The Truck Driver Who Forgot To Release The Bolts Of The Container In Ashdod Port This Morning

Image credits: Nesher86

Despite the objectively horrible time these folks had, as the saying goes, there is always a bigger fish, or in this case, workplace disaster. For example, bringing dads to their knees across the globe, the London Beer Flood of 1814, when a number of huge wooden vats for fermenting porter broke, caused a chain reaction that flooded the neighborhood. 

When the vat broke, the deluge of liquid slammed into other vats, breaking them and adding to the “avalanche” of beer. Between 580,000 and 1,470,000 liters of beer smashed through the brewery walls and cascaded through the neighborhood. 

#4 Damn Near Cut My Dong Off Today… Two Things That Stopped It From Happening: 1) My Big Guts 2) My Small Wiener

Image credits: The Awesome Boileys Page

#5 My Coworker Left His Phone Under The Industrial Paper Cutter

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#6 A Truck Carrying A Tank Of White Paint Dropped It On The Road

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Like something out of a hybrid of a disaster movie and comedy, a 15-foot (4.6 m) wave of beer rushed through the area, demolishing two houses and leading to eight deaths. As the area had very poor drainage, much of the beer ended up in the basements of nearby buildings, which at the time were often inhabited. 

#7 Knelt Down To Get A Ping Pong Ball From Under The Table At Work And Heard A Little Rip

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#8 Hubby Was Unemployed For 9 Months. Finally Landed A Job That’s Not Temporary Or A Contract Gig. 5 Minutes After Clocking In, He Trips On Some Carpet And Breaks His Leg

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#9 My Company Is Sending Work From Home Employees New Laptops. I Somehow Ended Up With All Of Them

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While later accounts state that mass drinking followed, the papers at the time made no such reports. Similarly, the beer would have been so diluted and dirty as to not really be drinkable at all. However, there are verified accounts of watchmen charging people to go and see the ruins and burst vats. 

#10 I Left My Job Shortly After Receiving This Prize For My Good Work

Image credits: No-Satisfaction-749

#11 I’ve Had To Take A Couple Weeks Off Work Because I’m Allergic To Part Of My Job

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#12 Someone Reported Me To HR For A Suspected Drug Use, Saying I Must Do Them In My Truck While At Work. HR Opened An Investigation. This Is Literally Powdered Sugar From The Fried Oreos

Image credits: reddit.com

The only upside of the disaster is that it did spark some changes in how breweries operate. After the London Beer Flood, breweries started to use vessels lined with concrete, to ensure that something similar does not happen again. The company itself continued to operate until 1961, relatively unphased by the chaos. 

#13 The Restaurant I Work At Occasionally Hosts A Drag Brunch. This Past Week We’ve Been Receiving Calls Threatening To Protest Against An Upcoming Brunch. This Vandalism Happened Overnight

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#14 What I Was Greeted By This Moring At Work, First Day After Christmas Break

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#15 I Find It Amusing How The Forklift Driver Must Have Been Staring Directly At The “Do Not Stack” Sign

Image credits: Seraphiem93

A recent equivalent was the Pepsi fruit juice flood, in 2017, which occurred in Lebedyan, Russia. The roof of a PepsiCo warehouse collapsed, sending over 28 million liters (7.4 million US gallons) flooding through the streets and into the Don River. Luckily, there were no casualties, and studies of the river reported no major environmental impact, although one must imagine that the streets had to be sticky for a while. 

#16 I Have A Costco Box Full Of These At Work, Just Ate One Yesterday. This Entire Bar Was Infested With These… Things

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#17 Overnight Coworker Sent Me This Last Night

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#18 My 6-Feet Husband Started A New Job, This Is The Uniform They Gave Him. And It Is My Fault As I Took The Measurements. Even His Boss Ended Up Laughing

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However, the vast majority of us will not be impacted by disasters at this scale. First and foremost, they simply do not happen that often, as there are tens of thousands of factories, mills, and breweries around the globe that do not explode. Similarly, safety regulations, on the whole, tend to improve from one disaster to the next. 

#19 My Sister Works At A Starbucks And This Was Someone’s “Simple” Order

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#20 Car Crashed Into My Bakery At Work, Old Lady Accidentally Hit Her Gas Instead Of Brakes

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#21 I’m A Janitor In A High School. Kids Are Dumb

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So while most of us won’t be anywhere near an accidental explosion, there still are a number of common workplace risks to be on the lookout for. According to UK-based law firm, Waldrons, most of the time, people simply slip, fall, or sprain something while just going about their day. Let’s face it, who among us hasn’t twisted an ankle in a pothole or tripped on a carpet? 

#22 You Think You’re Having A Bad Day? Just Think About The Poor Guy Who Will Be Forced To Clean This Up

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#23 After Working 3 Positions And Managing 20 Employees, Here’s My Work Christmas Gift

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#24 Happened On My Way To Work

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Other “usual suspects” are repetitive strain injuries, where a certain, common, workplace action over time causes some injury or pain to a worker. This can range from simply typing too much to lifting loads that are just too heavy. While there are techniques that employees can use to minimize risk, some unscrupulous businesses will demand that workers work a certain way. 

#25 This “Gift” For Employee Appreciation Day

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#26 I Got A $0.25 Raise This Year Which Absolutely Is Not Keeping Pace With Inflation. And Then I Get To Walk Into Work And See The Owner’s New Toy

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#27 This Mirrored Ceiling In Our Bathroom At Work

Image credits: Twin_Circle_

Loud noises are another constant in many lines of work, and employees should demand ear protection at certain levels of volume. Even if the sound seems reasonable, long-term exposure to loud noises puts the person at risk of tinnitus and even catastrophic hearing loss later in life, which often can be avoided. 

#28 Coming Into Work To Discover That Someone Left The Ice Machine’s Door Open Overnight

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#29 Had A Leak Develop In Our Laboratory This Morning. Nobody Was On Campus To Catch It So There Was 4 Inches Of Standing Water And Countless Ruined Pieces Of Equipment

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#30 I’m A Gym Manager And This Happened To Me This Morning When I Was About To Open

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So it never hurts to acknowledge the risks. And lists like this can help you observe the results of bad working conditions from a safe distance. If you want to see more examples like this, worry not, Bored Panda has got you covered. Check out our previous article on folks who are having a terrible day and our article on work accidents. 

#31 My Colleague Did Not Calculate The Height Of The Truck, And How Low The Bridge Was

Image credits: CleanMinds123

#32 Workmates Made A Birthday “Party” To Me At The Office. They Didn’t Realize I Work The Night Shift. They Ate And Celebrated It Without Me

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#33 My Coworker “Locked” Me In The Porta Potty And Then Went To Lunch

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#34 This Glove I Put On At Work Before Going Into Surgery Had Dozens Of Pin Prick Holes In The Fingers. The Entire Box Was Like This

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#35 The Ceiling Leaked All Over The Computers At Work

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#36 Stack Of Blueberries Fell Over At Work Today

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#37 New Year’s Eve At Work A Few Years Back. Was Refilling The Stock On The Bottom Shelf And The Whole Thing Collapsed, Almost Caught My Arm

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#38 Someone Brought Cheerio Donuts Into Work Today

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#39 A Generous Tip For Someone Working At A Restaurant

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#40 A Guy At My Workplace Uses This Bathroom Every Day, And Each Day He Leaves His “Nest” Behind. It’s Disgusting And Disrespectful To The Cleaning Staff

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#41 My Father Was Almost Pulled Into A Lathe While Working. Only Stopped By His Clothing Being Tangled

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#42 I Have Multiple Pairs Of Work Shoes And Today I Brought 2 Left-Foot Shoes

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#43 “We Have A Coffee Machine Somewhere”, “Looks Clean To Me” – This Is What A Lady At The Office Told Me Today When I Tried To Have Some Coffee

Usually, I am too busy for a coffee break. It was a slow Friday, so I decided I could try to have some coffee for a change. Definitely did not use this mess.

Image credits: Technical_Cow2511

#44 The Toilet Paper At My Work Is So Cheap It Has Splinters

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#45 I Work In Pharmaceuticals, This Was A Very Expensive Mistake

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#46 Coworker’s Car Caught On Fire While He Was Working

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#47 A Group Of Teenagers Came In Just To Trash The Theater

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#48 The Water Coming Out Of The Kitchen Faucet At Work. I Work At A Restaurant

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#49 Someone At Work Perfectly-Ripped My Husband Out Of The Wedding Photo On My Locker. There’s No Way This Was Accidental

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#50 Forced To Work In The Office And They Replaced The Toilet Paper With This

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#51 My Boss Installed A Water Dispenser Yesterday. This Morning We Got Into The Office To This

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#52 My Coworker Decided To Wipe The Monitor With Clorox Bleach Wipes

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#53 We Can Cut Into The Concrete Here They Said. It Will Be Fine They Said

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#54 Eggsactly What He Feared Would Happen

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#55 I Got The Chopping Board Stuck In The Sink At Work

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#56 I (30-Year-Old Male) Participated In Secret Santa At Work, Asked For Sports Equipment, Got This Instead

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#57 I Almost Burned Down Our Office Today When A Phone Charger Went Up In Flames

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#58 My Coworker Found A Tooth In His Lunch Sandwich’s Meat

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#59 Staff Forgot To Cover Up The Pool Tables At A College Bar On A Friday Night

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#60 Found My Car Like This When I Took A Break At Work

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#61 Today I Lost My Job And My Bike

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#62 My Girlfriend’s Job’s Coffee Maker Just Melted Away

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#63 The 12-Dollar Salad I Got At Work Contained Seven Inedible Lettuce Parts

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#64 My Coworker Stocks The Coolers At My Work, And His Dandruff Is On Every Single Can

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#65 Customer Guessed I Was Around 3-4 Months Along. I’m Not Pregnant

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#66 Accidentally Locked Myself In The Toilet Stall At My New Job. It Won’t Turn All The Way Open

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#67 When The Mowing Guy At Work Shatters The Window Of Your New Car And Doesn’t Tell Anybody

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#68 I Told My Employees That I Would Bring In A TV So That They Could Enjoy March Madness While At Work

I had this TV hanging around in a spare room of my house.

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#69 Yesterday This Guy Put Ghost Pepper Popcorn In Our Industrial Microwave At Work For Over 5 Minutes. The Office Was Filled With Black Smoke Burning People’s Eyes, No One Could Breath

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#70 The Break Room At My Job

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#71 The Warehouse I Work At Was Number 1 In The Company For The 1st Quarter, Management Promised A Huge Reward, This Was It

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#72 2 Minutes Into Work And I Find This

My colleague told me the self-service had been acting up all morning. I popped the lid open to find the problem. Now I’m left with more questions than answers.

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#73 Boss Decided Not To Tell Me In Person To Come In On Sunday When He Had The Chance To Do So During My Working Hours On Saturday, And So, I Was Awakened By This Message

Please? Yeah, please don’t send those late-night texts (like seriously, a nearly 2 AM message).

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#74 The New “Break Room” At My Former Job – I Guess The Old One Was Too Nice For Us

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#75 I Work At A Non-Profit Child Care Facility. We Like To Leave Our Pavilion Open To The Public After Our Children Leave. There Is A Garbage Can In Each Corner Of The Pavilion

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#76 My Girlfriend Has Asked For Reduced Hours At Her Work For 2 Weeks And She Was Ignored. Today She Asked To Come In Late And This Was The “Manager’s” Response

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#77 The Staff Bathroom At My Job (Dog Daycare) Where Customers Spend 50 Dollars A Night To Board Their Dogs

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#78 My Desk Collapsed At Work And There’s No Empty Ones To Move To

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#79 Keyboard At My New Job’s Work Computer

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#80 30 Minutes From Completing A Job And This Happens

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