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17 Professions Where The Word “Oops” Is As Bad As It Gets

There are some jobs where screwups happen regularly, and everyone just laughs and fixes it and moves on with their day. And sure, maybe sometimes it is a big deal, but still not like a big deal, you know?

Then there are jobs like these 17, where hearing someone say “oops” is enough to make your heart fall out of your butt.

17. There was blood, I assume. And maybe lost appendages.

Chef when they’re chopping things with a knife.

It was bad.

16. One more reason to hate going to the dentist.

I legit had a dentist say this one time while he was working on my teeth.

I immediately tensed up and tried asking “what happened” but my mouth was forced open, and as soon as he heard me say something he told me to “try not to talk” and so I had no choice but to go back to just…being still.

For some reason once he was all done, I either forgot to ask what happened or I intentionally decided not to. But yea, that was incredibly frightening, even if it seems nothing major came of it.

15. Sometimes your fingers just get carried away.

IT. “Oops” in IT can mean anything from “Oops, accidentally reset the wrong password” to “Oops, accidentally pushed a patch requiring a reboot and now every server is rebooting”.

14. Hahahaha WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING.

So I DID hear someone say oops, while I was getting a needle aspiration biopsy for thyroid cancer, and they were looking to see where to go in with an ultrasound.

The doctor takes a stab and the radiology tech goes, “Oops, nope, that’s her jugular.”

And they just like kind of laughed and shrugged and kept going, so apparently I was the only one who found that untoward.

13. Heart attack in the making.

I actually heard a “whoops” when I was on the operating table and awake during my c-section–this was after the kiddo was out.

Then I heard some muttering that was mildly worrying and they called in a specialist surgeon and told me what was going on (my bladder sustained some damage, needed to be fixed), then they knocked me out and I woke up pretty much fine a few hours later with everything fixed. Still, it was not what you wanted to hear when you’re on the table helpless, and it unnerved my husband who suddenly had a newborn headed to the NICU (he was also fine, in the end) and a wife needing more surgery.

12. At least try to act like it’s a big deal to you, too.

I have two personal experiences that fit this, but maybe weren’t that bad.

1.) I was getting a colonoscopy, and the anesthesiologist comes in to go over the process with me and drops his clipboard making papers go flying everywhere. He drops down to pick them up and huffs under his breath “Ugh it’s just one of those days”. I was like, great, I am gonna die.

2.) I had to get a wisdom tooth taken out. The dentist comes in wearing flip flops, shorts, a Hawaiian shirt, and is limping. Plops down on his seat and goes “here we go!”. It totally looked like he woke up hungover as balls to come operate on my mouth.

11. I would have had a panic attack. Those are my eyes!

I heard precisely that during my LASIK surgery in 2002.

Yes, they had a software problem. I was mildly sedated, but not out. To my annoyance, I heard them talking about Windows for Workgroups. The machine was certified to use them.

Yes, my eye is fine.

10. That is not how medicine is supposed to work.

I once went to the doctor because i had an issue with a nail root on my finger. He just said “hmm i don’t know what that is… lets try cutting it”

I promptly started bleeding all over the table and he goes. “Huh, well that was probably a bad idea..”

I should really change doctors.

9. This really happened, you guys.

Presidential candidate, apparently:

PERRY: And I will tell you, it is three agencies of government when I get there that are gone. Commerce, Education, and the — what’s the third one there? Let’s see.

(LAUGHTER)

PAUL: You need five.

PERRY: Oh, five, OK. So Commerce, Education, and the…

(UNKNOWN): EPA?

PERRY: EPA, there you go.

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

HARWOOD: Seriously, is the EPA the one you were talking about?

PERRY: No, sir, no, sir. We were talking about the agencies of government — the EPA needs to be rebuilt. There’s no doubt about that.

HARWOOD: But you can’t — but you can’t name the third one?

PERRY: The third agency of government I would — I would do away with, Education, the…

(UNKNOWN): Commerce.

PERRY: Commerce and, let’s see. I can’t. The third one, I can’t. Sorry. Oops.
Rick Perry was considered a possible frontrunner until his ‘oops’ moment, and then it all crumbled around him, with the Guardian notably calling it ‘one of the most humiliating debate performances in recent US political history’. Within four years, he went from ‘potential President’ to guest on Dancing with the Stars.

In case you’re wondering, it really is that uncomfortable to watch.

8. You definitely don’t want to hear that.

Bungee jump operator (no idea what the actual job title is but I’m sure you know what I mean)

7. That would surely cause some panic.

a pilot.

6. I bet they do it just to mess with people.

A tattoo artist

5. Maybe it hasn’t been that dire…yet.

Oddly enough people have said oops a surprising amount and nothing’s really happened

countries(mostly US) have lost a terrifying amount of nuclear weapons

The US specifically is not good with nuclear weapons. One missile silo was reported as being wide open and the operators were asleep, they ordered a pizza and the pizza guy just found a nuclear weapon which he could have gotten a friend and launched.

4. Ideally, you want to keep people from freaking out.

This isn’t as critical as some jobs but when I was in school for Computer IT in the late 90’s our teacher always emphasized that if we ever have to make a house call to fix a person’s computer, never say oops, people freak out.

That said, I never want to hear the guy in charge of hitting the nuclear launch button say “oops!”.

3. At least your hair grows back, though.

Barber

2. There’s always one smartass in the group.

A mime.

1. He/She seems awfully chill about this now.

Had a tattoo artist say it while tattooing the inside of my lip.

Got the tattoo for free and to this day I have a hidden typo.

I’m having palpitations just imagining the potential scenarios, y’all!

Have you ever been in the room when one of these “oopsies” happened? Tell us the story in the comments!