Rookie errors! Bosses share the most toe-curling mistakes apprentices have made at work
Working as an apprentice in a company can be quite challenging, especially if it is your first time working in a professional workplace.
But for some hapless workers, their rookie mistakes have now been immortalized online by bosses across the UK brought to Reddit to share the dumbest things their students have ever done.
In the AskUK Reddit thread, a staff member asked people to share their experiences with pupils where things went wrong.
To start the thread, the original poster shared an example of her own: ‘Our student was not happy this morning when we pointed out that booking eight hours’ holiday was the same as booking a day.
“He thought he could cheat the system and use one day in eight-hour blocks, getting three times as many vacation days.”
However, some students have messed up enough to lose their chance, from going too far with vacation requests to refusing to wash themselves.
With over 1,000 upvotes, the top hilarious comment read, “Now that I’ve left the company, I think I can share: when he was new, his bits accidentally got caught in the zipper of his pants, leaving him to our manager asked if that was necessary. reported in the accident book…’
Someone jokingly replied, “I hope he said yes,” to which the commenter responded, “As funny as it would have been for future reference, she just gave him a bewildered look and said no, while I had a good giggle at my computer.” ‘
Another boss told a story about an apprentice who only lasted six months, though the person admitted to being surprised it took that long.
They wrote: ‘They complained when they got their first paycheck because they were only getting an apprentice rate and not the ‘real’ wages they were supposed to get after completing their education.
“They had completed their two-week introduction to the workplace and thought it was necessary for the pay shift.”
A boss who used to manage a graduation project said the young staff “constantly made him pull his hair out.”
He said: “A memorable event was a girl who sent me an email, with a copy of the CEO, to report her manager for favoritism because she rejected her annual leave application.
She had requested a week in August in July that clashed with the already approved leave of two existing team members (in a team of four).
“The internal policy was that no more than two members of the team could take annual leave at any one time, and they had a shared document showing everyone’s approved time off so they could all plan.
“The two who had already booked a holiday had been on the calendar for months.
“She had already paid for her vacation before applying for the leave, and the large deposit was non-refundable.
“She went on to cite human rights abuses after both I and HR pointed out that her manager was right, and she threatened to take legal action.
He added that the conflict “resulted in her being removed from the graduate program.”
Another boss said his apprentice hadn’t quite got the hang of office talk after bragging to colleagues that for generations no one in his family had married anyone outside the family – adding that he intended to carry on the tradition to put.
He wrote, “Kid had clearly enjoyed protection in his own culture and failed to realize that talking about inbreeding in your family is not a work topic. You could take away the clumsiness with a knife.’
One commenter said they had worked with a 17-year-old office junior who “had a breakdown” because he was expected to take his turn washing the cups.
They continued, “He even tried to say in the 21st century that he didn’t have to do it because men don’t do housework in his religion.
“We had him follow the network manager around the office and put cable ties around the cables so they wouldn’t get kicked under desks.
“A few computers malfunctioned intermittently and it turned out that he had tightened the straps so much that he had gone through the sheathing of many wires and cables.”
Another said they once found their student “dressed up to the waist and armpits in a 50 gallon barrel of LM grease” to see what it feels like.
One reply joked, “I’m honestly glad someone did this in the name of science, we need the results ASAP,” while another said, “If the intrusive thoughts win!”