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I'll start. I had been chatting with a coworker online while at work — using a bit of coarse language. Shortly before leaving, I copied and pasted some marketin

I'll start. I had been chatting with a coworker online while at work — using a bit of coarse language. Shortly before leaving, I copied and pasted some marketing copy into the CMS for the page I was working on. I didn't check my work and went home for the weekend. Got a text Saturday morning that something was off about our "For Prospective Students" landing page (I was working on the new website for a Private Catholic College). Navigated there, and stood staring in disbelief as I read my own words calling a certain friend of mine a certain derogatory name or 4 under the heading "Why Choose Us?" Turns out, I thought I had added the Marketing copy to the clipboard, but must've accidentally copied and pasted a fraction of my damning convo instead. Lesson Learned: ALWAYS check your work, no matter how long you have been building websites or anything public-facing. It was such a dumb mistake. I didn't end up fired, but got a stern reprimand from my direct supervisor. Months later, the President of the school confided to me that he found the incident fairly hilarious, and somewhat troubling. Hoo boy.

sillysaurus3 9y ago
What ended up happening? That sounds like one of the worst scenarios from a career standpoint.
- altotrees 9y ago
  Nothing, shockingly. My supervisor just shook his head and went "man, I just...you can't..oh man." I felt like an idiot and had another serious talk with supervisor. Apparently, only a few members of our marketing team had seen it, and I had been doing good work so the damage was mitigated somewhat. It helped that I was the only person on staff who really knew Javascript and Coffeescript well and that I was also well-versed in writing and editing. Had I lacked any of these, had another staff member been better at them, or had the project been further along I'm sure I would've been canned. The president didn't find out until weeks later, thank god.
spicytunacone 9y ago
Ack. I can really empathize with this. Nothing makes me feel more amateur than just pushing commits with missing lines and the like, pushing another fix commit and determining if I should squash or not.

sillysaurus3 9y ago

What ended up happening? That sounds like one of the worst scenarios from a career standpoint.

altotrees 9y ago
Nothing, shockingly. My supervisor just shook his head and went "man, I just...you can't..oh man." I felt like an idiot and had another serious talk with supervisor. Apparently, only a few members of our marketing team had seen it, and I had been doing good work so the damage was mitigated somewhat. It helped that I was the only person on staff who really knew Javascript and Coffeescript well and that I was also well-versed in writing and editing. Had I lacked any of these, had another staff member been better at them, or had the project been further along I'm sure I would've been canned. The president didn't find out until weeks later, thank god.

spicytunacone 9y ago

Ack. I can really empathize with this. Nothing makes me feel more amateur than just pushing commits with missing lines and the like, pushing another fix commit and determining if I should squash or not.