I would venture to say that when most of us are meeting professionals in a professional setting, we’d rather not hear them say “oops.” I mean, it kind of indicates they don’t really know what they’re doing, which is not at all why we’re there in the first place.
That said, there are definitely some professions where an “oops” would be worse than others – and these 17 people have really hit the nail on the head.
17. Like you don’t even want to think about it.
Anesthesiologist.
The line between “you’re going to take a nap” and “you will never wake up ever again” is frighteningly thin!!
16. Don’t fall behind.
EOD Tech. I know one and he has a t-shirt that says “I’m a bomb disposal technician. If you see me running, try to keep up.”
15. Straight to the bad place.
Bungee jump trainer.
A couple of years ago on holiday a bungee jump trainer/employee hooked me up then said “Oh.. Oops” right before pushing me off the edge. I later found out he does this often to get people even more mortified than they probably already were.
He’s never seeing heaven for that.
14. Ooh, yeah, definitely this one.
The skydiving instructor you’re strapped to just before you both jump out of the plane (this actually happened to me).
First time I went skydiving, 18yo with friends on a Hawaii senior-graduation trip. I get strapped to this old, crazy guy (all the younger dudes were fighting strapping up to the women all while being creeps). He was 100% no f**ks given.
Once the chute was pulled, he said “do you like spinning?!?!” and then pulled on of the cords and we spun out almost horizontal for a bit. Then he reversed direction with the other cord. It was great… and then he said “well… s*%t.”
“Why?!?! What’s wrong?” Apparently usually people scream when he spins them so he stops. I was having a great time… and apparently we lost way more altitude than he’d planned. He tells me to start scouting potential landing spots over this neighborhood, he’s not sure we’ll make it back to the runway.
We actually hold high enough that we’re coming in toward the very end of the runway, at the fence around it, and he says “lift your legs as high as you can, be prepared to kinda kick off&over the fence, we’re pretty low. And then get ready… because I’m gonna pop you loose the moment we’re over the fence. Try to land on your feet, and run as fast as you can forward… I’m gonna have to sprint to get this chute over the fence so it doesnt snag.”
Sure enough, kick off the fence and then suddenly I just drop the 6-ish feet to the ground, stumbling. I run for a bit, look back, and hes right behind me, managed to get the parachute over the fence. We then get to walk down the whole runway back to the office. My friends are waiting around and super confused by the time we get there.
13. Not at all a fun thought.
Power plant operator.
Used to be friends with the wife with some sort of senior engineer at a nuclear power plant, know he was in the actual operations room or whatever the equivalent of a coal power plants is (been in those, not in nuclear ones though.)
Dude was a ragingly functional alcoholic.
Guarantee he was drunk at work more than a few times.
That was always a fun thought.
12. Definitely them.
Whoever launches the nukes.
11. It’s a whole different language.
Heart surgeon.
Oops = Nothing to worry about.
Whoops! = Minor issue.
F**k/S*%t = Got a bit of a problem.
Uh oh = RUN.
10. They’re just teenagers!
The kid that locks your seatbelt at amusement parks.
9. Bad for all of us.
structural engineer.
This is why in serious engineering there is a strong review process. The engineer makes the calculations and comes up with the design. Then he takes his design, talks over what he did with a senior experienced engineer, walks through the process of coming up with the design, and the senior guy tries to find the “oops”. Only after the review is properly completed, with any necessary corrections made, does the design get signed off.
The main risk comes when challenges in producing the intended design are encountered in manufacturing, and the people doing the manufacturing decide to make changes to the design without going through a rigorous review process. The classic example of this is th 1981 Hyatt Regency walkway collapse.
8. Just keep that mic off, sir.
An airplane pilot turning on his intercom just to say “oops”
I had that once. We were going in for landing and heard “oops, took that one a bit fast. Let’s try again”. Then he just took another loop around the airport and landed properly the second time
7. Try not to think about it.
Air traffic controllers.
An ATC has more lives in his hands in one shift than a surgeon does in his career.
It’s pretty funny when someone on position goes, “S*%t,” and everyone in the room goes silent and looks at them like wtf did you do?
Happens fairly often too…
6. Not so fun fact.
Executioner. If you are the convict, you know he did not do the job right, but damaged you. Also the fact you can still hear the oops.
Not so fun fact most of the times it was never one swing at your head. Chopping your head with an axe is rally hard so most of the time in old ages it took 1 to many swings and u most likely would feel everything.
Also I might be on watchlist for knowing random stuff like that.
5. My worst nightmare.
Surgeon.
I was getting lens replacement eye surgery and after my natural lenses had been removed from my eyes, the surgeon got into an argument with the nurses over some piece of equipment he needed that she couldn’t find or understand.
The tone of his voice made it clear it was a time sensitive need. I just laid on the operating table staring up at light fuzz wondering if I’d be blind forever. Luckily it all turned out great.
4. Equally terrifying.
Pyrotechnician on New Year’s.
Or the NASA workers in charge of knocking hazardous asteroids off course.
3. Probably happens way too often.
Tattoo Artist – what the hell you mean ‘oops!’ That’s my damn skin man, it’s permanent!
2. Hopefully they’d just turn up the gas.
Dentists.
I already hate the dentist, having your mouth open laying back on a table and having someone digging around with metal power tools already makes me feel vulnerable.
An “oops” would send me into a spiral.
1. Just a short list.
Any type of doctor. Barber. Tattoo artist. Saw operator. Guy that loads the missiles or mortar. Firearms instructor. Power plant employees.
It’s hard to argue with any of these replies, thought I do admit I’m surprised there are so many good answers.
What else would you put on this list? Let us know in the comments!
