15 Photos Where the Job is Simply Not Getting Done Properly

There is doing a job badly, and then there is doing it so badly that strangers stop to take a picture. Somehow, these mistakes made it past the planning stage, the person actually doing the work, and apparently anyone who might have been around to point out the fairly obvious problem. The results include stairs blocking things people definitely need access to, signs facing entirely the wrong direction, and accessibility features that seem to have forgotten their one important purpose. Some could probably be fixed in minutes. Others raise much bigger questions about how they got there in the first place. Here are 15 photos where the job is simply not getting done properly.

Those Stairs Are in the Way

Someone installed a perfectly important-looking electrical box, and then someone else built the stairs directly in front of it. Accessing it now appears to require adding “remove staircase” to the instructions.

The Lines Almost Match

Fresh pavement should have been an opportunity to make everything look neat again. Instead, the newly painted parking lines ended up noticeably out of alignment with the ones beside them.

The Stairway to Nowhere

Most staircases reward you for reaching the top by providing somewhere else to go. This one leads directly into a wall, making the entire climb feel somewhat unnecessary.

Watch That First Step

Installing an exterior door several feet above the ground is certainly one way to discourage unexpected visitors. A staircase, landing, or basically anything underneath it would have been a useful finishing touch.

An Accessibility Challenge

A ramp is supposed to eliminate the problem created by stairs, not cover a few of them and then give up. This one manages to make it partway before leaving anyone using it to figure out the rest.

Keeping a Close Eye on That Wall

Security cameras work best when they can actually see the area they are supposed to protect. Pointing one almost directly at a wall may technically count as surveillance, but the wall is probably innocent.

Emergency, but Make It Upside Down

An emergency department is one place where clear directions seem particularly important. Installing the sign upside down adds a puzzle nobody really asked for.

This Door Has Its Own Rules

The latch on this sliding door appears to have been installed in a way that makes using it far more confusing than necessary. Opening and closing a door really should not require an orientation session.

Close Enough Was Apparently Good Enough

Replacing damaged bathroom tiles should make the wall look better than it did before. Using tiles that obviously do not match the existing pattern achieves something closer to a permanent reminder of the repair.

Privacy Requires Some Improvisation

A bathroom stall lock has a fairly straightforward job: keep the door closed. Whatever happened during this installation resulted in a locking system that looks considerably more complicated than it needed to be.

The Stairs and Doors Disagree

This exterior staircase has landings, and the building has doors, which sounds promising until you notice they do not properly line up. Somewhere along the way, two very important sets of measurements appear to have stopped communicating.

A Sign You Have to Work For

Signs are generally installed to make finding your way easier. Mounting one sideways turns a simple direction into something that requires a tilted head and a little extra patience.

Another Sign, Another Direction

Apparently getting words right-side up is not always part of the installation process. This building sign ended up upside down, which makes its helpful information slightly less helpful.

Something Went Wrong at the Pancake Factory

Packaging usually has the modest goal of putting the product neatly inside the package. These pancakes somehow made it through the process looking like nobody involved was particularly concerned about that detail.

Just Paint Over It

Removing small objects from a wall before painting would take extra time, so someone apparently decided not to bother. Painting straight over them technically finished the wall faster, although “finished” may be doing some heavy lifting here.