Yeahh it’s as bad as it sounds. For context I’m 24 and most of my coworkers are 20-25 Also long one ahead because this shit just gets worse…My work place and my friends both have a group chat the same place… this group chat has all my coworkers in it. I had a really uncomfortable experience with a customer and one of my coworkers from a different department stepped in.
I was shaken by the situation and went to write about it in my friend group chat. I’m German but we always write in English. I wrote something like “the girls at work are menaces!” Now, German doesn’t have a translation for menace… so if you translate it it would be something closer to threat or crazy.
You guessed it! I sent it in my work group chat! I of course deleted it after like 10 seconds when I realized but the damage was done, over 40 people saw it in that time. One of my colleagues wrote to me privately asking if I was ok and what was going on. I panicked and explained the situation to her, she told me i should prob write an explanation in the group chat since it really seemed like I hated my colleagues…
I wrote an explanation. And made my second mistake! I was embarrassed as hell so i started it out with something like “god dammit I’m killing myself at dawn,,,so sorry of course the wrong group” this is in no way like a professional group chat. It’s not made by the company and most people fool around in it.
Yeah so I got pulled into talk to my boss and explained everything. She completely understood but since I wrote “I’m killing myself” in the message they are now worried and I hate to talk to a lady at work to make sure I’m not gonna do anything.
I cannot begin to explain how embarrassed I am over this whole thing. I actually really enjoy my colleagues at work but now the rumor mill has started and everyone thinks i genuinely HATE my colleagues and think of them as crazy. And on top of that my boss thinks i might kill myself! Genuinely don’t know how the fuck I will get out of this with any dignity.
I called my boyfriend and explained it all and he started laughing so hard. We both have the same humor of any small inconvenience we will both just go “god I’m killing myself” so he could definitely see himself doing the same thing.
All in all a HORRIBLE instance of using friend humor with co workers…
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I won’t sugarcoat it, I’d probably quit. But I wouldn’t move even from my current home. People move on and forget.
Back when we were all internet newbies, my company had an internal newsgroup for office chat. It apparently was very similarly named to a dating specific chat group for the local city.
A coworker posted her very detailed description of a sexual encounter to the work group.
She never returned to the office out of embarrassment.
Big oof! Once I accidentally sent a screenshot of a job listing for my position but with a starting pay much higher than any of my colleagues or I were making. I sent it to my boss instead of my coworker, the owner… It was brutal 😬
Bring cookies for the breakroom or something in a few days. I’m sure most people will realize it was not as intense as it sounded
Dont overdramatize it. You didnt kill someone, everybody will get over it.
It’s nice of them to be concerned. They could’ve taken offense, but it seems like everything’s okay on their end. Take a moment to calm down and talk to them calmly and with some perspective. It’s going to be okay!
This is so unbelievably trivial, I would be surprised if anyone gave it more thought than yourself which is usually the case when people make mistakes. Don’t lose any sleep over this, it’s okay. I’d stay at the job if you like it . Don’t worry 😀
Just play along with it and pretend you do hate your colleagues, scowl at them and schitt. The best way out of it is to make it funny.
That would be the definition of menace in English speaking countries as well, probably even worse.
I would just laugh it off and carry on. This is one of those things that one day you will look back on and laugh about, well you may grimace but still.
Ya. No biggy. Germans tend to forget things. They forgot WWII. I wouldn’t worry about it.
>Now, German doesn’t have a translation for menace…
Oh how the tables have turned.
AHH Tell them the killing yourself thing was another translation thing that meant you felt mortified by your own mistake. Your translation fumble. It’s just another expression.
This is so hilarious from an outsider’s perspective, but you really have to clear it up..
“Okay, one last message to clear things up..
When I said ‘the girls at work are menaces,’ I didn’t mean anything bad. I was honestly trying to describe an energy you all bring. English just has this dumb way of using ‘menace’ to mean someone who’s chaotic in a mostly loveable way (like… if a raccoon had a skincare routine). Ironically, Germany doesn’t really have a word for that…
Anyway, I’m mortified this all happened and really sorry for the confusion. I appreciate how supportive everyone’s been over this translation fumble. 😅”
Then talk to HR and tell them you were afraid of how the women in your workplace misunderstood what you said and took it as a wild insult instead of the mildly positive comment it was meant to be in a private chat. Then drop it. Never bring it up again and leave it as that. Overapologizing makes it seem like you’re trying to hide the fact you talk shit on German women as a hobby in your free time. You don’t, so it’s okay, you don’t have to defend yourself as if everybody believes you do. You can set it straight enough to feel comfortable dropping it, that’s what you gotta find.
I feel you, this is like a walking nightmare.
Can you joke it off? Like, admit you’re embarrassed and feel like an idiot. Be extra nice to people and make jokes when you can.
I feel like I spent the majority of my 20s doing this. lol!
Accidentally iconic. Painfully relatable. You’ll laugh about this in a month, maybe even with them!
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if you are american, i dont think you CAN move to another country right now. not safely anyway……
Girl, I feel your pain! Last month I accidentally sent my drunk karaoke video to my team’s group chat instead of my sisters. It was me belting out ‘All By Myself’ while eating cold pizza at 3 AM. Had to face everyone Monday morning. Just own it – they’ll forget about it in like, two weeks… maybe three.
Use your native language to write and to talk.
My work mate told me that her husband came on her face and then I went to tell someone she told me that and instead wrote it in the work group chat containing everyone at work.
I send a dick pic to my gal…by mistake my barber got it by mistake. It’s not that tough to find a new barber.😅
I was on a deployment (military) and we had an all staff chat with various ranks and positions all the way from sergeant to colonel. This was used as a means of communication in the event of an emergency or some higher ups ego flexing. This one guy, who was relatively quiet and a mid grade officer, randomly on a Saturday morning put in the chat with about 40 others something along the lines of “hot girl is at the gym doing squats in front of me 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻”. It was the emojis for me that sent me cracking up. Within minutes he sent an apology text to all and it was never made a big deal, just a hilarious thing that happened. So moral of my story- people will not hold a grudge but have thick skin because people will laugh.
Love it! I remember my first office job (19 years old) at an advertising agency. Lots of women and we’d go out partying throughout the week from client invites and functions. It was the Xmas period and our CEO had written the annual all staff email detailing success within the company and wishing us all a happy new year etc. She has also decided to mention how fun the Xmas party the previous week was saying how great it was a great turn out and great to see so many happy faces etc.
Anyways my colleague a PA, forwarded the email copying in about 5 of us talking about some raucous activities which we were all up to (we were all young and I was the biggest flirt, I pretty much was making out with each of them at one point or another). Me not really understanding how emails work decided to ‘reply to all’ but didn’t notice it was the original email from the CEO. Basically giving the whole company a whole insight of what I was doing and what I’d be doing that week with some of them if they were game… and pressed send and went about my duties. To my obvious surprise whilst delivering mail I started to notice smirks and smiles as I walked by. Me being an idiot just thought everyone loved me till a co-worker blurted out how one of the girls i named was doing followed by abrupt laughter. It took a second or two and then it clicked and I completely froze, was stood in the middle of the office and it felt like time stopped. Looking around seeing everyone laughing and smiling. Someone else shouted “you sent that to everyone” followed by more laughter. The damage was done. I took my opportunity and with the biggest grin done the Jim Carrey bow from the Truman show and gracefully walked to my desk along with my mail trolley.
I got back to my desk to quite a few replies and a couple OMG you sent that to all staff. Luckily my message wasn’t too x-rated, wasn’t cursing anyone and was in general good spirits. If anything I just looked like a horny slag. Besides I had youth on my side and was friendly to everyone so it wasn’t taking too seriously. But I’ve learnt, when any email goes I triple check the To’s, CC’s and BCC’s. My reputation rocketed for a while but somehow I got headhunted to another prestigious company where my past was just folklore.
I (a married man) was mentoring an undergrad during my PhD and we would text back and forth regularly to coordinate her times in the lab.
I got a really long text from her on a Friday afternoon that went into explicit detail about how she finally slept with her boyfriend and it was actually a really sweet and positive message and while I was super happy for her it was clearly not a message meant for me.
She realized about 10 minutes after she sent it and went into full crisis mode trying to explain that her friend had her phone and that it was a joke and…yeah.
I told her not to worry, super happy for her, and we don’t ever have to talk about it again. She was very grateful.
Once had a boss who had been asked by his manager to identify the two weakest team members on his team, he did so but copied the entire team into his reply
“I’m killing myself at dawn” would have cracked me up. I always say that I’m off to drink bleach when I do something embarrassing.
My favorite TIFU post is this really old one where the girl wrote an erotic Harry Potter fanfic and emailed it to her colleagues as an attachment instead of to her personal email.
Welllll, yeah your messed up, but remember you will not know any of those people in 20 years and it won’t matter in 20 years. Try let it go.
Act like nothing happened. They probably feel the same so you said it out loud. If they don’t now, they will one day. Also, lmao
Honestly, this is not as bad as you think it is. In a few months it won’t even matter. Just move on and don’t be so harsh on yourself! And no need to move country- people understand.