We asked and you answered - here are your 12 most embarrassing work stories

'I showed up ... wearing two different colored shoes!'

I showed up to make a major presentation to an audience of 230 people wearing two different colored shoes!

—Anonymous

'She quit by the end of the day'

After repeated errors and repeated re-training, it was time to part ways with an employee who was not quite up to the specific tasks assigned to her.

I emailed HR, explained my situation, and requested that they send me the specific process of terminating her employment.

She had a uniquely spelled first name, so I used Outlook to find out how to spell her name correctly. Forgot to take her name off the email. The email went to her.

Oops.

She quit by the end of the day.

—Anonymous

'I tripped over my own foot'

There was free food in the kitchen once. I grabbed some. On my way back to my desk, I tripped over my own foot ... in front of my colleagues. Don't worry ... I saved the food.

My clothes, not so much.

—Delan, Toronto, Canada

'I had no shoes on'

I drove 1.5 hours from Virginia to Maryland for work one day — a typical commute in the greater DC area.

When I was getting out of the car, I realized that I had no shoes on. I like to walk and drive with bare feet, and usually I have a pair of shoes in the car. But that day, I couldn't find any shoes in the car.

I was working as a psychotherapist in a psychiatrist clinic and my first patient appointment was about to start. I had no choice but walked in to the packed waiting room. I pretended all was normal and called my first appointment patient's name. I smiled and shook hands with her and led her to my office.

Throughout the whole day I talked with my patients, and walked around the office barefoot. My heart pounded nervously, but I gave no visible signs that I was utterly embarrassed. I acted as if all was normal and no one, not even my coworkers mentioned a word about me not having shoes on the whole day.

—Anderson, Virginia

'I was a total zombie'

I took an Ambien on a red eye flight. It didn't wear off by the time I went into work the next day. I hardly remember any of that day, as I was a total zombie. My emails and messages made next to no sense.

I was basically fired for the incident.

—Anonymous, Atlanta, Georgia

'I ended up vomiting on the wife's designer shoes'

I worked in retail and got food poisoning on Thanksgiving. I tried to call in sick to work the next day (Black Friday). The boss didn't believe me. Fifteen minutes into my shift I was helping a couple with questions on a new TV. I ended up vomiting on the wife's designer shoes. I was sent home shortly after.

—Paul Phoenix, AZ

'I farted'

My boss faked a punch to my side as he was walking by me. I braced for the punch, and out squeaked an exertion fart.

—John, Pennsylvania

'I want to have your babies'

My coworker's wife and kids visited the office. After they left, I turned, looked at him, and said, "I want to have your babies."

I meant that I wanted to babysit them, but it came out completely wrong.

—Carly, Sacramento, California

'I got locked in'

I got locked in the lobby of my office building on a Friday night. This was in the days before cell phones. I pounded on the door for a while, but no one heard me.

I finally was able to pick the lock.

—Dean, San Francisco

'I walked around with a hickey on my forehead'

I worked as a graphic designer and copy editor at a travel company. I'm also most fortunate to have a head bereft of hair, a key point to remember.

When my first daughter was a few months old, we placed her in a gizmo where she was able to sit up. Thinking it would be fun, I stuck a suction-cup toy in the middle of my forehead and bent over near my daughter who then grabbed the toy and pulled.

We both had fun until I removed the toy from my forehead and my wife shrieked with laughter.

I had a perfect circle imprinted right smack dab in the middle of my forehead!

When my daughter pulled the toy, the suction pulled all the blood to the surface of my skin leaving the hickey.

The dress code at work was shirt and tie, with no hats. For two weeks, I had to walk around with a one inch circumference hickey on a head without any opportunity to cover it up.

I couldn't have a conversation at work where the other person didn't start laughing at me. After a while, of course, it proceeded to scab, then it finally disappeared. For years afterward, whenever I was feeling or acting cocky, my wife would mimic pulling a toy from her forehead. That usually straightened me out.

—David Manney, Kronenwetter, Wisconsin

'I noticed lots of people laughing at me'

I was working as a dishwasher at a fairly popular Italian restaurant chain. You only have so much downtime every shift, so I took advantage of a short five minute break to use the restroom.

I put toilet paper down around the toilet as usual, and when I was finished, I returned to my work station.

Well, over the course of the next thirty minutes or so, I noticed lots of people laughing at me and whispering about me as I passed them.

As a dishwasher, you're constantly restocking the cooking line with dishes. So, I probably made about 10-15 trips around the back of the restaurant in that thirty minutes.

Eventually, I came to the realization that I had a string of toilet paper flapping out of the rear of my pants the entire time. It was so long that it was literally dragging on the ground behind me.

That was when I first started, too, and so the others workers never let me live it down. I continued to work there for another two years.

But, that night was one of the most embarrassing nights of my life, undoubtedly.

—Spencer, Fort Wayne, Indiana