this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2026

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303

What is your biggest non-destructive "oh shit" moment you had at work? (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 weeks ago by mkhopper@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

82 comments fedilink hide all child comments

It's the late 90s and I was working in IT for a small (200 employees) company.
One of my tasks was performing daily data backups, which ran for about four hours and started after everyone else had left for the day.
We had an intercom system in the building, where if you picked up your phone and dialed a specific extension, you could page someone, or make announcements so everyone could hear.

One night I was in the process of running Ethernet cable from switches on the second floor down to individual terminals on the first floor, so there was a lot walking around the building.

I like to have music when I'm working, but I didn't have an MP3 player at the time, so I thought... "I have music on my PC and no one is around. Why don't I just...", and I went around and cranked the volume knob on every ceiling intercom speaker in the whole building. Then I dialed into the intercom from the phone in my office, put the handset up as close as I could to my PC speakers, and boom, music throughout the building.

Cut to a few hours later, it's late, I'm tired, the backup is finished, so I close down the system, hit the lights, lock the doors, and go home.

The next day, I come in, not thinking about anything from the night before, and get to work. About 11:00am, the owner's secretary got on the intercom to page someone.... and blew everyone out of their seats. There was an almost collective, "What the fuck??!!" from everyone, and an "Ohhh, shiiit" from me, because of course I immediately knew what happened.

I ran around like a madman, turning the volume down on all of the speakers that I had forgotten the night before, while saying, "No idea... Yeah it's crazy... No no, it's fixed now..."

No one ever found out exactly why the volume was so loud that morning.

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[–] Rocketpoweredgorilla@lemmy.ca 28 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

First thing that comes to mind is driving semi in Saskatchewan once I came across an older slower moving car (a Chrysler K car) full of people on the highway. I pulled out to pass them, and as I was passing the car I saw in the mirror that they started to wander into my lane. I ended up putting half the truck into the ditch to avoid them getting under my trailer. I had 9 tires on the grass before they realized what they were doing and swerved back into their lane. They had wandered far enough over that they were completely in the oncoming lane at that point, leaving me nothing but shoulder and ditch.

I was fully loaded (around 80,000 lbs) If I hadn't watched my mirrors as closely as I did and they got under my trailer they would have been nothing but a smear on the road.

Edit: Another time When I was 18 I was working at the Wpg international airport. A baby had died in a house fire up north and it was sent down to Winnipeg for an autopsy. I guess the people working up there had run out of cargo tags so they had put a regular baggage tag on the bag the body was in, and neglected to tell anyone. My job was to unload aircraft, so seeing a regular baggage tag I just tossed it onto the cart and it went to where you pick up your luggage. It was there for about 40 minutes before an ambulance showed up asking for it, and none of us had any clue about it. Thankfully nobody snagged it because they would have been in for one hell of a surprise.

[–] Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

For your first story, I'm having trouble picturing it. How many lanes were in that road? Was it a "one lane each direction" deal, so when you "pulled out to pass them" you crossed a dashed yellow line into the oncoming lane?

What a terrifying situation. I've seen some bad drivers, but that driver must have been on another level.

I have no words for your second story. Such a tragic situation that could've wound up even worse in so many fucked up ways.

[–] Rocketpoweredgorilla@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Yup it was just a regular "one lane each direction" road, just outside Yorkton Sask. I don't know for sure, but I think they were probably drunk or stoned out of their tree. Either way they were not paying attention to what they were doing.

The second one I felt pretty bad about, although it wasn't my fault. Even my supervisor told me he would have done the same thing because it was tagged as regular baggage. When I was unloading the plane I had tossed it down onto the baggage cart and it made a thud noise... I had just assumed it was just someone's shoes or something, not a burnt kid in there. It had come from way up north so It's understandable I guess that they didn't have the proper means of marking it, but at the very least a heads up would have been nice.