These People Had One Job – And They Messed it Up Royally

The Job: To smoothly tarmac a new road
The Mess Up: Forgetting to pick up the shovel
The Cost: $500+*

Potholes are a motorist’s arch-nemesis, so when the local authority does finally decide to resurface a road, it’s usually smiles all around. Of course, the job has to be done properly to make sure that it’s not holier than Swiss cheese in a few short years, but surely, professionals know what they’re doing, right? 

Shovel In Road @dawnweatherup / Pinterest.com

Apparently not. In this case, everything went smoothly until some bright spark put down a shovel and forgot to pick it up again. The result was this disaster on an otherwise perfect road. This isn’t something that can be lived down, and it won’t be cheap to fix, either.

The Job: To translate “Bananas”
The Mess Up: Didn’t translate correctly
The Cost: Possibly the job

When it comes to translating it’s not always a one-to-one process. For a start, being fluent in another language is no mean feat. You need to be able to say more than “hello” and “where’s the nearest bar?” 

Bananas Translation Fail @tonygibbons507 / Pinterest.com

Clearly, the person who landed the job with this company lied on their resume and relied purely on instinct to figure out what bananas were called in English. They didn’t even do a quick Google. If they had, things might have turned out a little differently for these “long yellow things.” 

The Job: Putting up an advertisement 
The Mess Up: Placed in the wrong order
The Cost: $1,000+*

Sticking up billboard posters isn’t an easy task, which is probably why we’re seeing more and more digital ones pop up in major cities. That being said, the old-fashioned ones are still around, which means there are still people whose job it is to paste these giant pictures up there. 

Billboard Fail @crispycrunchybacon / Imgur.com

Sadly for this person, they clearly had a very bad day. Not only is the picture pasted up the wrong way around, but it’s also going to be costly to fix. Say a prayer for this tired employee. Let’s hope they managed to get a job at the local Walmart stacking shelves. 

The Job: To remove film from products
The Mess Up: Film wasn’t removed
The Cost: Pride

Every store employee knows that merchandising products on the shop floor takes a little bit of skill, even if it doesn’t seem like it to the outside world. You’ve got to accept the delivery, make sure it’s all accounted for, and then (perhaps most importantly) read the instructions. 

Walmart Stock Fail @u/Daxyl86 / Reddit.com

One poor Walmart employee was clearly very focused on doing such a speedy job that they missed the huge red warning letters. It’s not as bad as making a mistake on national TV, but let’s face it, it’s still pretty embarrassing, especially as it ended up on social media sites like Facebook. 

The Job: President’s Spokesman
The Mess Up: Not speaking for the President
The Cost: Dignity 

Rising to the top in politics isn’t an easy task. Landing a job working closely with the President of the United States is like trying to win the lottery. However, the lucky few that get there end up right in the firing line in tense situations. For example, take the President’s spokesman. 

President's Spokesman @hushhhh / Pinterest.com

It’s his or her job to talk about awkward issues so the man himself doesn’t have to, but what happens if he can’t speak for the President at all? CNN really milked this moment with a tongue-in-cheek headline that soon went viral on sites like Twitter.

The Job: Inserting windows in line
The Mess Up: They’re wonky
The Cost: $10,000+ to fix*

Getting into the construction trade may seem like a great idea, but not everyone is cut out for it. Building apartment blocks and other structures is all about precision and accuracy, so when it goes wrong, it sticks out like a sore thumb. 

Wavey Windows @u/lostproton / Reddit.com

Perhaps someone left their tools at home that day and just decided to wing it. The result? A dizzying line of windows with irregular spacing and shoddy craftsmanship. This isn’t something that could be easily remedied by a quick trip to Home Depot either. To get this all in line you would have to spend a serious amount of money. 

The Job: To use simple markings
The Mess Up: Confusing arrows
The Cost: Reduced sales 

Major appliances have all sorts of strange settings these days. While it’s a little hard to say what this particular item is, what we do is that it’s incredibly confusing. The downward arrow points to decrease, but then the upward arrow points to increase. 

Washing Machine Reduce to Increase @u/FaehBatsy / Reddit.com

It’s a mind-boggling situation that could have been avoided if someone in the design department had laid off the Bud the night before. We don’t know for sure, but a mistake like this could have easily impacted sales of the product. When it comes to appliances, we want them to make life simpler, not harder! 

The Job: To reduce the milk
The Mess Up: Mistakenly increased the price
The Cost: Dignity 

We all know that hitting the grocery store at the right time means picking up a bargain, but can you imagine walking down the aisle and picking up some milk, only to find that it’s been increased to $18.01 a pop? 

Milk on Sale @u/Newbo91 / Reddit.com

We don’t mean to kick someone while they’re down here, but printing out stickers on a little machine isn’t exactly rocket science, especially because most of these machines at stores like Kroger do the calculations for you. There must have been a lot of red faces around on that day!

The Job: To tile correctly
The Mess Up: Tiled incorrectly so the pattern is incorrect
The Cost: $100+*

If you’ve ever tried your hand at DIY home improvement then you’ll know that tiling isn’t for the faint of heart. It can take a while for things to be fully lined up, and one wrong move can ruin it all. However, there’s almost no excuse for this atrocity. 

Subway Wall Lady @RecreoViral / Pinterest.com

We’re all for a nicely tiled picture, but usually, aren’t the shoulders and head supposed to actually be lined up properly? Unless this was made by Henry the Eighth, there’s really no excuse for it. On the plus side, it does make for an interesting Facebook snap. 

The Job: To hang a Redbull poster up
The Mess Up: It’s upside down
The Cost: $20+*

Sticking up posters and advertisements is a monotonous job, but someone has to do it. What happened here isn’t exactly clear, but it looks like someone was in such a rush they didn’t stop to think about what way the poster should be put up before they scurried off to the next one. 

Upside Down Redbull Sign @u/-PokePuff05 / Pinterest.com

Not only does Redbull give you wings; in this case, it also apparently gives you stupid. At least it made the locals smile, even if someone’s boss was more than a little mad. Redbull executives might not have been thrilled with this either. 

The Job: To properly store these boxes
The Mess Up: Stacked them when they shouldn’t be stacked
The Cost: Job, potentially hundreds in damaged goods 

When a product’s packaging says “Do Not Stack” in huge letters, it’s probably because the product inside isn’t built to withstand much pressure. So, whoever took the delivery of these items must have left their glasses at home. 

Stacked Do Not Stack Boxes @u/KevenM / Reddit.com

Had they taken the time to actually read the boxes, they would have soon realized what they were doing wrong. Instead, it looks like they happily went on their way, leaving someone else to come along and laugh at the sheer idiocy. 

The Job: To properly input non-confusing letters
The Mess Up: Skipping letters and confusing the masses
The Cost: $20*

If your brain hurts just looking at this, rest assured, you’re not the only one. Vending machines should be easy to use by their very nature, especially since they’re all about convenience. However, there’s nothing remotely speedy about this set-up. 

Vending Machine Buttons @u/ImTheBababooey / Reddit.com

You’ll stand there for a good 10 minutes trying to find the letters that you need to input. Even then, you’ll probably press the wrong ones and end up with a product you didn’t even want in the first place. Life is all about challenges, and this is certainly one of them!

The Job: To label and exit sign
The Mess Up: Putting the arrow the wrong way
The Cost: $50*

Signs shaped like arrows can be very handy and helpful to shoppers. After all, we’ve all been in a big grocery store but have struggled to find our way out if we’ve never been before. That’s why good signage is so important. Employ a bad sign maker and this is what you end up with. 

Exit Sign @u/FerretFarm / Reddit.com

There are more questions than answers with this one. Is the exit to the left, or to the right? Maybe it’s to the back, or to the front? Either way, we suspect disgruntled employees end up giving directions to confused customers all day long, which isn’t exactly a great advertisement for this company. 

The Job: Putting signage up the right way
The Mess Up: The “I” should be a “H”
The Cost: Dignity 

In our minds, this mistake was made by a nervous spot-ridden teenager who was so keen to impress on his first day on the job that he messed it up anyway. Huddle House has been around for decades, serving hungry Americans in 23 states. 

Iuddle House @u/TheComixkid2099 / Reddit.com

Their signs aren’t the most dazzling, but they’re usually spelled right. This one is very nearly correct, except the “H” has been placed the wrong way around so it looks like an “I.” “Iuddle House” sounds like a cheap knock-off of Huddle House, so this error could have even cost the chain business.