The Epic Finale of Work Kevin: How One Employee Managed to Injure the Boss With a Box of Motors
If you’ve ever worked with someone whose mistakes are so legendary you start to wonder if you’re being pranked, you might have met a Kevin. But even among the pantheon of workplace “Kevins,” few can compete with the saga of Work Kevin, whose short-lived warehouse career ended with a spectacular display of misplaced confidence, broken cardboard, and a boss in the first aid room.
Prepare yourself for the final chapter in the trilogy you didn’t know you needed—a story equal parts comedy, cautionary tale, and facepalm-inducing tragedy.
The Hope and the Horror: Training Kevin (Or Trying To)
Let’s set the scene: a bustling warehouse, a shipment of spare parts, and a step-by-step system so simple even a sleep-deprived raccoon could master it. All Kevin had to do was:
- Acknowledge when an item didn’t have a location.
- Print a sticker, slap it on a box, and plop the item in.
- Find a spot for it.
- Scan the location and the box, so the next person could actually find it.
Easy, right? Unless you’re Kevin.
From the get-go, Kevin’s performance was, let’s say, “optimistically questionable.” His colleagues tried their best—demonstrating the process five times, then a sixth for good measure. Each time, Kevin would nod confidently, only to immediately forget or skip vital steps, like, oh, putting the item in a box, or printing a sticker, or doing anything beyond putting stuff on a shelf and hoping for the best.
The Great Warehouse Hide-and-Seek
After repeated walkthroughs, Kevin’s inability to follow even a simplified process became legendary. His coworkers started marking items given specifically to him, just to keep tabs on the inevitable misplacements.
And then came the fateful task: putting away motors that needed a new location. The process was idiot-proofed for Kevin—stickers pre-printed, boxes pre-folded—leaving him with only two responsibilities: put the motors in the box, tape it up, and scan the location.
Kevin’s response? “Yeah, I know what I’m doing.”
Spoiler alert: He did not.
The Calm Before the Box Drop
Two days later, the warehouse manager dropped the bomb: the newly arrived motors were missing from the system. No location. No record. Just a void where organization should have been.
Cue the boss—aka the company director—rolling up his sleeves to search for the missing motors himself. While Kevin enjoyed his lunch, the director found the box… on a high shelf, untaped and overloaded. He pulled it down, and (predictably) the box gave way, raining motors down and slicing the director’s eyebrow.
Let’s pause here to appreciate the artistry of Kevin’s error. Not only did he skip scanning and skip taping the box (because who needs structural integrity?), but his mistake managed to physically injure the boss. That’s a Kevin hat trick.
The (Un)surprising Denouement
As rumors of the boss’s battle wound spread, Kevin strolled by, grinning. His coworkers, probably equal parts furious and dumbfounded, asked him for one tiny bit of accountability: just poke your head into first aid, own up, and apologize.
Kevin’s response? “Ha ha, No. Don’t be daft.” And off he went, whistling to the canteen, blissfully unaware his Kevin days were numbered.
Shortly after, Kevin was sacked. The warehouse—and likely the insurance premiums—breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Lessons from the Legend
What can we learn from this epic tale? A few things spring to mind:
- Not all mistakes are created equal. Some cost you time; others cost you your boss’s dignity (and possibly a trip to urgent care).
- Simplifying a process only works if the person actually follows the steps. Otherwise, you’re just setting up the world’s weirdest scavenger hunt.
- Accountability matters. No one expects perfection, but a little “my bad” goes a long way—especially when motors rain from above.
Have you ever worked with a Kevin? Or, dare we ask, been a Kevin yourself? Share your stories below, and let’s celebrate (or exorcise) the workplace follies that make life… interesting.
What’s the most memorable coworker blunder you’ve seen? Drop your story in the comments—let’s commiserate and laugh together!
Original Reddit Post: A former work Kevin part 3