40 Times Corporations Failed So Hard, They Got Shamed Online (2024)

Fails, Funny

Let’s get real for a second, Pandas. I genuinely believe that we’re becoming more and more like a cyberpunk dystopia every single day. We’re developing ever more impressive technologies, but our quality of life suffers, as the wealth gap between the haves and the have-nots continues to widen. However, even in this dreary corporate landscape, you can find something to giggle about. Comedy, as always, is the silver lining that helps perk up our mood.

That’s where the r/CorporateFacepalm subreddit comes in. A cozy online community of just over 147k members, it has been documenting hilarious corporate fails on social media and in real-life since the early summer of 2015. In those 6+ years, they’ve amassed a vast archive of proof that even the biggest, most powerful global companies slip up from time to time. Sometimes, in such funny ways that we realize that the people managing the social media accounts are human, too. With human errors left, right, and center, too.

Scroll down for some of the most facepalm-worthy corporate posts on the internet, upvote the biggest fails, and let us know in the comments which of these you think are worth a gold star for the effort.

The ‘Corporate Facepalm’ subreddit runs with the tagline, “For all the ridiculous things your company does!” And it really helps humanize the large, often faceless, corporations.

They seem much more approachable when you realize that even the biggest conglomerates, rivaling even countries with their raw financial power and political clout, aren’t perfect. They can mess up in ways that look obvious to us. Then again, hindsight is always 20/20.

Rules-wise, r/CorporateFacepalm is very light on regulating its members. All they ask from their community members is that they “don’t be a jerk,” label any NSFW post and comments as such, and avoid posting any personal information. Information about public entities is fine, however, if you’re posting a “normal” person’s name, photo, or profile, you should really block that out to protect their identity.

The subreddit’s mods also urge their members to submit original content and avoid reposting things. “If someone posted it this week, you probably shouldn't post it again. If someone posted it last year, it's probably okay. We will review this on a case-by-case basis,” they share.

On a more serious note, however, we do have to keep in mind that the landscape of the job industry has changed a lot in recent years. Over a decade ago, we had one of the biggest financial crashes in human history. Meanwhile, we’ve been battling the Covid-19 pandemic for the past two years.

“We had the global financial crisis which led to many millennials who were employed being displaced. When the economy recovered, it changed structurally, and many quality jobs were lost," Eddy Ng, the Smith Professor of Equity & Inclusion in Business at Queen’s University, told me during an interview with Bored Panda just last week.

According to the professor, the 2008 financial crisis led to the emergence of precarious jobs, the gig/sharing economy, and the rise of digital labor. As a result, some people were unable to join the new economy. Income and social inequality were on the rise.

According to Eddy, some racialized groups, like Black and Brown workers, fall into a poverty trap, unable to climb out of it. Financial literacy isn’t enough to help people pull themselves out of poverty, though it might be a helpful tool otherwise. “You need to have the resources to, for example, access training and education," the professor said.

In the present day, we see that the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the very same income and social inequalities that the 2008 crash brought to light.

“Workers work more hours with lower pay in order to survive. That leaves little time to accumulate the necessary resources for skill upgrades or retooling for the new economy. This is the poverty trap I alluded to," the professor said.

Financial expert Sam Dogen explained to me earlier that the reality is that some CEOs can get millions of dollars while average employees might be scared for their job security. There’s an extreme dichotomy between the fortunate and the average.

“CEOs have no magical powers. Yes, they have the operational experience to run big companies. However, they are often just spokespeople and ambassadors of the firm. One person cannot make that big a difference in a large organization. If Tim Cook from Apple steps down, the company will be fine. Another overpaid CEO will take his place,” he told Bored Panda.

“The reason why CEOs can get paid so much is due to the direct correlation of the size of the company. When a company is worth hundreds of billions of dollars, it’s easier to pay a CEO tens of millions of dollars a year, which comprised mostly of stock options,” the expert said.

“At the end of the day, the CEO and the Board of Directors’ goal is to provide as much value and returns as possible for its shareholders. And if that means firing thousands of employees, then that is what they will do. It is a sad reality of extreme capitalism.”

According to financial expert Sam, the employment situation is going to get more competitive in the future, as technologies change and globalization continues to be a powerful force.

“Now, a company can more easily hire a hungry person from a developing country who is willing to earn much less. The work-from-home trend is here to stay. The other trend we should see is more people becoming freelancers instead of full-time employees. The ability to work from home has created more solopreneurs who see more business opportunity taking on multiple clients at once.”