TIFU by trying to make a joke to my coworker

This actually did happen today and I keep switching between total mortification and fits of laughter.

As I was leaving work this evening, I decided to take the stairs instead of the elevator, for a few reasons: The elevator looks straight out of a horror movie, and it takes significantly longer than the stairs despite being three flights up. I was rushing to leave because I stayed late to finish a few things, so stairs seemed like the best option at the time.

Because I worked late, I ran into a coworker that I normally never see, also making the healthy choice and taking the stairs. I’ve talked to him maybe twice.

I’m walking down the stairs slightly ahead of him by a few steps, and he’s a pretty quiet guy so there wasn’t any small talk. All you can hear is the loud thunking of my shoes and my slightly winded breathing. And I’m thinking, you know, maybe I should make an effort to talk to him, get to know the people I’m working with, right?

We’re getting onto the last flight down to the first floor, and in the spirit of camaraderie (and making a joke of my out-of-shape-ness) I turn and say:

“These things are way easier down than up, am I right?”

But before I can even finish the last word, my shoe got caught on the lip of the top step, and my leg just folded. I proceeded to slide down the entire flight of stairs on my shins like I’m sliding across a dance floor, and land haphazardly at the bottom.

I was carrying a tote bag, so all of the contents spilled out in a trail of office-supply bread crumbs down the steps behind me. During my hellish descent, I was trying to grab as many of my things as I possibly could – I imagine I looked like a flailing bird sliding down an icy roof. I’m saying this to really stress how excruciatingly embarrassing it was. There was not an ounce of grace or poise, just pure clumsiness and fumbling.

After it was all said and done I kept trying to crack jokes, like “I guess it’s not easier down than up,” in some attempt to save face. But dude was probably more embarrassed than I was. He helped grab my things and BOOKED IT out of there.

I would be a thousand times more humiliated if that sequence of events didn’t happen the way it did. “Easier down than up”, and proceeding to get obliterated by this fucking staircase? I mean, c’mon, the joke writes itself.

I’m currently icing my shins but my dignity was bruised more than anything else. If anyone has any embarrassing work stories please feel free to comment or message me some, or give me a funny line to say the next time I see him.

TLDR: I walked down the stairs of my office building with a coworker I barely know, made a joke about how it’s easier going down the steps than up them, and proceeded to fall down the entire flight in the process.