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

The Job: Identifying an assault suspect through their name
The Mess Up: Naming them “Firstname Lastname” on the broadcast
The Cost: N/A 

If you’ve seen this man, named Firstname Lastname, you should contact the cops immediately. Apparently, he was involved in a “Dentist Assault,” which could mean an assault on a dentist or that Firstname Lastname was a dentist who did something bad to someone.

Creative Journalism @sopitas / Pinterest.com

Either way, we’re willing to bet that someone got fired over this, as this otherwise serious-seeming case was turned into the stuff of memes. This image has graced more than a few “You Had One Job” and “Biggest Fail” pages and the cost of fixing this, though unknown, probably has more to do with reputational fixing than money. 

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: Making a calculator that adds correctly
The Mess Up: 2+2 equaling 5 on this calculator
The Cost: $5-$10* per calculator 

Casio has some explaining to do. We hope this was a case of really good Photoshop; otherwise, all those C and D grades on math tests are going to have to be returned. One calculator-owner found that 2+2 did not, in fact, equal four.

Explain This.@pensepl / Pinterest.com

On this Casio, it equaled five. The poster captioned the picture with a simple, “Explain this.” Whether Casio responded or not is unknown. Reprogramming all those calculators would be super-expensive, if they were found to be bugged with errors. The cost to make one calculator is an estimated $5-$10 to make, so multiply that by the thousands produced. 

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: 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: 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: Creating a chocolate-covered ice cream cone
The Mess Up: Only covering half the cone with chocolate
The Cost: Unknown 

This is the epitome of visual dyslexia. Someone hoping to enjoy a chocolate-covered ice cream cone was quite disappointed when the ice cream cone was revealed to instead be a weird remix of the colors. The cone was partially chocolate-covered, while the ice cream had no chocolate in it.

Whoops @twylatime / Pinterest.com

The cheap “Galaxy” cone probably cost $0.50 at some random convenience store, and it still likely tastes pretty good, but the chocolate-covered part was subjective to whoever made these. We’re curious about whether the purchaser ate the cone or not (and whether it tasted even remotely edible).  

The Job: To craft lovely windows
The Mess Up: Crafted terrible windows
The Cost: $2,000+*

Making a building look nice isn’t as easy as it might seem. There are a lot of elements that go into the process, taking it from paper to reality. In this case, something went wrong at some stage. Rather than lovingly crafted, beautifully ornate windows, the end result was an abstract mess. 

Strange Window ©Marina Zezelina / Shutterstock.com

Was this intentional? It’s hard to know who to blame, the architect with a distinct “vision” that just didn’t translate, or the tradesmen who couldn’t follow instructions. Either way, it’s a no from us. We’ll stick to traditional double glazing and be done with it. 

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: Creating an accurate label for a bag of sugar
The Mess Up: Placing a sugar-free label on the bag of sugar
The Cost: Unknown 

So, what is the truth? One shopper noticed this amusing error when shopping for baking supplies. Sugar-free is the new fad, as people are realizing more and more that carbs are a huge cause of weight gain. Everything is sugar-free in the diet world now, though there are questions about whether aspartame and other fake sugars are really that much better for you.

Don't Worry, It's Sugar Free ©imgur.com

Either way, we doubt this makes sense. One caption on the bag says “Pure Granulated Sugar,” and then the other caption, a few inches down from it, says “Sugar-Free.” Some brave soul will have to just taste-test it and see. 

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.