Self sabotage seems like a habit for some people. Whether it's insecurity or arrogance, they can't get out of their own way.
But even if everyone around them is saying, "this won't end well," they're going to go full steam ahead.
Some people need to be saved from themselves.
Reddit user APT3993 asked:
"What’s the best way you have seen someone screw themselves over?"
Fail Safe Fail
"A long while ago in a large computer corporation with looming layoffs, an employee set up a time bomb so that a lot of files would be destroyed if he didn't reset the trigger periodically thus creating a delayed revenge if he got fired."
"Which eventually happened—without any severance package—because the time bomb went off when he was still an employee."
~ ofnuts
No Zoo For You
"When I was young I realized if I threw up at school they’d call my mom to come get me."
"One day in 2nd grade I 'got sick' because I wanted to leave, but my dumba** forgot it was field trip day to the zoo."
"I tried to say I was feeling better, but my mom was already on her way."
~ raider_red
Dude, Stop Talking
"Cops were called to a buddy's house."
"Cops told this buddy that they did not require any statement from him."
"Buddy proceeded to tell 'his side of the story'."
"Buddy went to jail for telling the cops how he broke the law."
~ Gustavius040210
Petty Theft
"I worked for one of the government agencies everyone loves. We had a donation bin in one of the visitor centers that was empty one morning."
"The money in the employee honor system snack room thing was gone too. It was a huge scandal."
"A day or two later, the cash (but not the coins) from a satellite office’s employee snack money also disappeared. This was enough to get our in-house law enforcement to question everyone with access to either building."
"Well, only one person had a key to the donation box AND a key to the satellite office building. One location was where he worked and the other was in the compound where he was renting government housing."
"Also, there were cameras around that caught a grainy view of the perpetrator and he was the only one of a certain size currently employed at the location."
"The guy was a strange mix of really excited to make his job his career and complaining that it did not pay enough. He ended up throwing away his dream career and receiving federal theft charges for around $100 in small bills."
~ BobRoberts01
Premature Celebration
"In kindergarten, my bus would pick me up around 11 because school was from like 12-3. I didn't want to go one day, so I told my mom I had a stomach ache."
"I watched the bus stop in front of my house and as soon as it drove away, I started jumping up and down on the couch yelling 'YAHOO!'."
"My mom got so mad, she drove me to school. Plus she laid a guilt trip on me that I made her waste gas that she couldn't afford."
~ weedful_things
A Cold One
"A buddy of mine told me a story about when he was in a sh*tty garage band as a teenager. Him and his buddies were in the garage playing and drinking some beer."
The cops were called on the people in the house for creating a disturbance. I think one of the guy's sister and her boyfriend."
"They all walked out to see what was going on. One of the boys admitted to the cop he was drinking beer."
"The cop said he didn't care about that because that's not what he was there for. The kid took that as permission, went in the garage and came out with his beer in his hand."
"Since the cop actually saw him breaking the law, he got arrested."
~ weedful_things
A-Ha!
"Small thievery is fascinating. I worked with a tiny town police department—I think they had about 10 cops at the time—where they suspected one officer who was making a six figure salary of filling up his personal vehicle at the town's fuel pump."
"That's where official vehicles fill up for free."
"The Chief and his Captain cased the fuel pump one night when dude pulls up in his personal car and fills it. The Chief and Captain popped out of the bushes and confronted dude red handed."
"Guy lost his job, his family medical coverage and his lifetime pension because he couldn't resist stealing $ 30 worth of gas every couple of weeks."
~ dartdoug
What's That Smell?
"My friend was telling me about a guy he knew that used to grow a lot of weed in his house before his state legalized it."
"The cops show up and ask if they can come in so they can set up surveillance for across the street, and the dumba** let them in."
"Apparently the smell was pretty pungent, and they found his grow operation."
~ gigglefarting
Hope It Tasted Good
"My old work had a warehouse that was attached to the office building and the bathrooms for both were in the middle as well as a room with a shelf full of PPE for anyone who needed to go into the warehouse, but didn't have their own stuff."
"One day police came and alongside our fuming HR guy, they escorted one of my coworkers off premise. The dude had stolen work gloves to trade them for snacks on eBay."
"His account name was his full actual name and he had multiple listings offering work gloves for chocolate bars or coffee."
"Dude threw away his job for some chocolate."
~ Pickled_Unicorn69
Could Have Been
"Old friend from high school 'Eddie' was really good at pitching and got a full ride scholarship to play baseball at a Division 1 (D1) University."
"A week before we graduated high school, we were playing basketball in gym class. Eddie goes for a shot, misses, gets angry, punches a wall and breaks his hand."
"Long story short, the D1 school took his scholarship away because his hand was f*cked and he would’ve missed summer training. Poor guy was devastated."
"10+ years later and he still talks about how he could’ve been a pro player. But he now operates a crane in Philly and makes really good money, so not too bad an outcome."
~ LeDevnoob
Petrol Problem
"We had a brand new departmental manager. He was in the best paying job of his career."
"I know this because I'd seen his CV. He'd spent five months in the role before suddenly going off 'sick'."
"Turns out that he'd been using his company fuel card to fill up his wife's car! Lost his best job ever, over about £200."
~ dabassmonsta
Can't Fight Physics
"My friend's sister was engaged to a great guy. His only flaw was he was too 'tough' to wear a seatbelt. Crashed his car and died."
"A few weeks later, she found out she was pregnant, so now she's a single mother."
"So that's at least 3 lives he f*cked up by not wearing his seatbelt."
~ AssumptionShot434
Not A Smooth Criminal
"We had an employee at another location sell company merchandise on social media on his own account for 10× the original retail price. Company found out and fired employee."
"The very next day the company gave every employee company wide a decent bump in pay. So he lost his job and the pay bump all for less than $100 reselling company merch."
"Truly one of the dumbest ways I've ever seen someone screw themselves over."
~ Few_Lobster7961
Per my last dozen emails...
"I had something with a contractor—I was a sub-contractor. I was trying to get my team in to do an appliance installation, it should have been installed over a week ago but the site wasn't ready due to our specs."
"This guy sends me an email railing into me that my company was going to be fined and going on and on about how I F'd up. Copied basically everyone higher up in his company as well as my boss."
"I simply attached all of our previous communications and listed all the times I had done site checks and communicated to him that it was incomplete."
"I happened to get on the elevator with his boss about an hour later, and we sat there quietly for a bit when he leaned over and just said, 'Nice email. That's what we needed'. And walked off."
"The guy was fired within the week."
~ physics515
Regrets
"I have a relative who's like this."
"He always gets himself into nonexistent problems. His wife tells him, 'Calm the f*ck down. You're over-reading this. You're over-reacting'. He won't listen."
"He screwed himself out of a lot of opportunities."
"Boss was going to pay for his house if he stayed at the job (he f*cked it up)"
"Boss was paying half check, half cash totalling over $10k/month (he f*cked it up)"
"He was going to become the head of an entire warehouse (he f*cked it up)"
"He only realizes NOW as he approaches 70 that he f*cked over his own life. That someone was there to stop him every time, but he never listened."
~ Make_Moneyyy
Have you ever seen someone make a mess of their own life?
