Work can be stressful enough - all you need is an embarrassing blunder or shameful mishap to completely ruin your day.
Spilt a drink on yourself? Accidentally tripped over in front of customers? You haven't got it that bad. Wait until you read through our collection of funny work stories.
They're bound to help you overcome your bad day at work.
1. 'I Love You. No, I Don't Love You'
For this anonymous and ashamed employee, a well-regretted phone call left her humiliated at work for life. After a professional telephone call with her boss, she ended the conversation with 'Alright, I love you, see you later!'. This is what she'd usually say to her family at the end of a call, but it certainly wasn't meant for her boss!
To save herself from the embarrassing situation, she panicked and said: 'Oh my God! I didn't mean that. I absolutely don't love you... No, I mean, I like working for you, but I know you're married, and I'm married, and I'm not flirting, so please don't report me to HR for harassment...'
In the midst of the madness, her boss hung up. Of course he did.
2. Barefoot and Brave
We all have strange habits that make our daily lives much easier. Anderson from Virginia, for example, likes to drive with no shoes on. That's all fine and dandy until you realise you're driving to work!
Anderson forgot to slip on her kitten heels on her way to her psychiatrist clinic and was forced to walk around barefoot the entire day. She had the perfect excuse to get out of work that day but, instead, the 'professional' psychotherapist pretended everything was normal. Smiling, shaking her patients' hands and leading them to her office made up the most awkward few minutes of her life. Thankfully, her coworkers never mentioned a word about it, and Anderson went about her day as if everything was normal.
A day in the life of Fred Flintstone, hey?
3. An Email Nightmare
Lesson of the day: always double-check who your email is being sent to. David Champi had a really bad habit of communicating with close colleagues via email. Be it a joke, silly request or complaint about another coworker, David would use Outlook. One day, when his coworker Arnold enraged him, he couldn't control his anger, and so decided to nag about it in an email to his friend from Marketing. Little did he know that out of his rage, he inserted Arnold's email address instead of his friend's, and woof, off the email went to the wrong person.
David had to apologise to Arnold for saying such nasty words behind his back, and it even led to him getting a warning from his boss. Learn about email etiquette, folks, especially in the workplace!
4. Attack of the Pillows
A great customer service tip this employee swears by is having patience and thick skin. That's what she did when a customer at her store started throwing pillows at her.
It was Black Friday when the customer started yelling about not having time to wait in line to buy her pillows. Calmly, the employee stated that queues were generally busy on Black Fridays but that she should be checked out within 15 minutes. This clearly didn't reassure the customer, because she started throwing pillows at the shop assistant and topped it off with: 'You can do your job now and put those away', before storming out.
5. A Toilet Blunder
Ever been goofy and awkward in front of a handsome guy (or girl)? Now, imagine that guy was also your new manager. Indeed, that's what happened to Jen Fincham when she started her new office job. From blushing and stuttering every time he spoke to her to saying 'yes' in a high-pitched tone to every command, Jen thought things couldn't get any worse on her first day. Until the unthinkable happened.
Off she trotted to the restroom and, bam, she opened the door. Inside, doing a (very evil-smelling) number two was none other than her handsome manager, red-faced at the sight of seeing her seeing him. Jen had never been more embarrassed in her life. But after that incident, he was the one blushing.
Rule number one: always remember to knock, guys.
6. Bosses and Beers
Bad bosses can be awful, but who knew they could also be the life and soul of the party?
Seeing his boss drunk was the funniest experience for this particular employee. John from London explained that his manager always gave him a hard time at the office, but seeing him embarrassingly drunk on beer at the Christmas work party made him more human and less intimidating. Watching his stern and serious boss belly slide across the table with a party whistle in his mouth was the highlight of John's career.
As expected, he couldn't take his boss seriously on Monday. And his boss couldn't look anyone in the eye.
7. When Nature Calls
Some of us have had the great displeasure of breaking wind in public, just like this particular employee who let one out, loud enough to wake the dead. Suffering from a cold, this office worker went to blow her nose while everyone was going about their usual routines. Unfortunately, she ended up farting at the same time, and everyone in the room heard her. One colleague laughed so hard that the boss shouted 'Karen!' to get her to stop.
Sometimes, your bodily functions get the best of you. What a work fail!
8. A Real Stich-Up
This real-life work story by Melissa Hill is enough to leave any employee red-faced. She knew her new employee was going to be a great one after this funny incident.
When the lightbulb blew during this young man's first day at work, he kindly offered to hop on the desk to change it. Much to his embarrassment, as he jumped back down, a loud 'KRRSCHW' was heard. His trousers had torn! Melissa couldn't keep her composure and simply laughed at the poor guy. But, kindly, she offered to stitch the fabric back up. 'Could you imagine having your new boss sew up your pants on your first day of a new job?', she said.
9. An Invite Gone Wrong
Carelessness got the best of this employee. Working as a defence contractor, they wanted to invite their team to a New Year's Eve party but, unfortunately, the invitation got sent to the wrong group of people.
They realised their mistake when they started getting replies like 'Am stationed in Italy but will try to make it'. Turns out they had sent the e-vite to a Navy client list whose name was one letter different from their team's. The NYE invitation had been sent to 7,000 sailors.
Whoops!
10. A Yoghurt Mishap
Chris from New York started raging at his colleagues when he'd realised his yoghurt had been opened and half-eaten. Storming around the office, blaming coworkers and scoffing under his breath, Chris was disappointed that someone could be so disrespectful.
It all turned out quite embarrassing when he messaged his wife at home telling her the story. Apparently, the yoghurt had been hers, and she'd half-closed it to eat it the next day. Little did Chris know that he'd picked up an open yoghurt to take to work that morning. And embarrassed he was when he had to apologise to his colleagues.
You can always rely on some humour to get you through your working day - just as long as you're not at the rough end of the stick!
What humorous work stories do you have to share? How about any funny interview stories? We'd love to join in on the laughs. Let us know in the comments below!