Singaporeans Share Their Most Embarrassing Moments At Work

SINGAPORE: Let’s admit it. We’ve all had the most embarrassing moments at work that still make us turn red when we remember them. It’s bad enough when we’re alone, worse yet when we’re with family and friends. But the most cringe-inducing embarrassing times are the ones that occur when we’re at work, right? It feels a little bit extra when we end up doing things we regret in an environment where we’re supposed to be at our professional best.

Amusingly, u/Dapper_Race_1454 decided to have fun at the expense of his own embarrassing work moment, posting it on Reddit and asking others to share their own embarrassing moments. “I was supposed to bank in a cheque for my boss which was quite a big sum and will be used to clear some advances in equipment purchasing for a project to come. He gave instructions and left on my desk to do it first thing when I go to the office,” he wrote. “At the time, I was young and didn’t know that there is a cut-off timing for same-day clearance.”

I think we can all guess what happened next. Later that day, after the cut-off time, the boss called to ask if the cheque had been deposited.

“I said I’m about to think I had it under control. Lol The reaction next from him was a rude shock to my complacency, he usually doesn’t shout but he did that time… I felt guilty and super embarrassed the next day heading into the office… I learned that cheques coming in are the priority for small businesses from then on.”

Many commenters were eager to share their own faux pas, some of which had to do with video conferences.

One male Redditor wrote that he “Attended weekly team sync from home, topless, without realizing my video is ON,” while another shared, “I accidentally turned my video on mid-call and I was digging my nose.”

Others got caught in embarrassing screen shares, like this commenter. “I was once talking to my boss and sharing my screen also. Then she kept asking the same questions and I got annoyed so I texted my friend ‘sian leh’ but lucky she was angmoh and didn’t understand.”

Another made a newbie mistake: “When I was new to work, I was shown a list of clients and one of them is listed as ‘MOHMED;’. On a meeting I called it ‘Mohammed’ confidently thinking it was the name of the client. My boss was confused which client was it. Found out its short form for ‘MOH (Ministry of Health) Medical.’ Everyone laughed.”

One had this experience: “Vomited during a meeting due to food poisoning. All the chicken rice came out onto the table. Never seen so many disgusted yet pitiful faces at one time.”

“Accidentally rammed into a VIP with a luggage cart and got scolded by my boss right there and then,” contributed another.

A Redditor had a temporary mental block with his boss’ name. “Brought my partner to a company event (everyone else did too) and was introducing all my colleagues, then my boss… suddenly forgot his name and decided to skip him. It was really obvious because I was going from left to right. Everyone yelled “Omg you skipped the most important person!” I just kept quiet and my boss introduced himself.”

We bet you also have a story of an embarrassing work moment! /TISG

Reddit user who says her boss is ‘so-so’ asks, ‘Employees of Singapore, do you have a good boss?’