What's the most embarrassing thing you've ever done on the job?

[bluedigger]

7. Let my crew dig into a burial mound.

I was sent out as the crew chief with a brand new principal investigator (PI) with a fresh master's to show him the ropes. One of his responsibilities was to do the background research to identify known (recorded) sites (like burial mounds) before we went in the field. I was out running another job while he did that. Long story short, I got preoccupied recording some stuff with the GPS, he was off doing who knows what, and my crew ran a transect of shovel tests right across a burial mound that I had not recognized, but was recorded.

In the end, I had to go explain/apologize to a inquiry by representatives of several tribes (Iowa) along with our project manager. The new PI quit (taking his office product with him, such as it was) rather than face the music. We ended up having to undergo retraining on the identification of mounds, but really it wasn't that bad, as they respected our forthrightness and acceptance of culpability. I don't think the PI had much of a career, though. Maybe he went back for a doctorate.

Oh, we did not disturb any human remains that we could identify. So that was good...