‘Who’s the most hilariously unqualified person you’ve ever seen in a job they had no business doing?’ – 21 worrying workplace tales

You probably know somebody at work who is a little bit inept. And there’s always that colleague who has been given a promotion and you have no idea how. But do you have a co-worker who is so utterly terrible at what they do that they shouldn’t even be allowed in the building?

Over on the AskUK subreddit, user AlanBennet29 asked:

Who’s the most hilariously unqualified person you’ve ever seen in a job they had no business doing?

It got lots of replies from people who work with someone who has an amount of responsibility frighteningly far beyond their capabilities.

1.

‘The boss of the pub I worked in employed his wife as a cleaner. She mopped the carpets.’
–MonsieurGump

2.

‘My favourite was a Senior Risk Analyst who googled ‘How to write a risk assessment’ within the first hour of starting her new job.’
–RaymondBumcheese

3.

‘Guy I work with is in charge of a depot of around 90 train drivers. He is not a train driver, has no knowledge of safety or union regulations, has no operational or logistical experience, has never managed people before. His previous job was as a prison guard. He got the job on the basis of being cycling buddies with the guy who hired him. His salary is around £79k and he has so far cost the company far more than that in easily avoidable mistakes.’
–AlaricTheBald

4.

‘I used to work at a family theme park, where the rides where manned by 16-21yo’s, a solid quarter of which (or about half if there was a company event) would be hungover or coming down from the night before

Even had one lad who’d regularly wear sunglasses to work and have me check his pupils in the morning so management (who were barely older than us) wouldn’t catch on. If it was too obvious, he’d call in sick

Bit horrifying now, thinking back on how we were put in charge of heavy machinery flinging kids about in the air. For the most part they idiot proofed it, but you could definitely make some really stupid and dangerous mistakes if you wasn’t on the ball.’
–BenHDR

5.

‘Honestly? It’s me. In my job interview, I told them I liked Excel and they took this as me being qualified and I got the job although I feel as I was best of a bad bunch.

Daily, I’m tasked with completing complex assignments and if it wasn’t for AI and online forums, I’d be screwed. Whenever I make a ‘simple mistake’, I laugh it off despite me not knowing what the mistake was and so far, everyone has managed to buy it.’
–Sustainable_Twat

6.

‘My Mrs works in a job with coding and the last interview she did had her do a basic test in the interview to prove she could actually code. Apparently like 50% of people applying just fail this bit because they were planning on bullshitting and using ChatGTP.’
–littlerike

7.

‘There’s a woman who’s in charge of a highly specialised avionics lab where I work. No experience and she’s a nutter. She has the job because her husband is hot shit and the company wanted him to work here and he stipulated he would if his wife also had a decent job.’
–Lauren-Bee

8.

‘Had someone in a mental health setting inadvertently admit they tell their spouse about our service users, including names, diagnosis, trauma, and speculation on where they live, while we were in a meeting.’
–scrogbertins

9.

‘Not the same level but I always remember the deputy director of HR whose favourite subject of conversation was all the gossip she learned about people’s home lives, medical conditions, disciplinaries, complaints etc.

She would do this over lunch in the office.’
–MagicBez

10.

‘When I taught abroad there was many an English Teacher who couldn’t speak English. They literally taught from a book and were one page ahead of the students.’
–BG031975

11.

‘Some Uber drivers. Had a fella go the wrong way down a dual carriageway once.’
–Annual-Cookie1866