Let's see...
As a senior software developer, I'm asked to build a system to support the "grading" of all 50,000 employees for massive lay-offs... I'm sorry - Redeployments to non-existent jobs. 30+ different custom forms. All the HR data on everyone. 50,000 people nervously awaiting my work. 2 weeks to complete everything. By myself, to minimize the collusion.
Day 3 after the launch, running a 103 degree fever, but still in the office to keep an eye on things... Between fits of vomiting, some one suggests it would be nice to normalize the collected data based on who submitted it. SQL 7 DB. I'll just right click and update the table to add a column. No problem.
Day 4. My manager is in my office when I arrive. His manager is also in my office. Her manager is on my speaker phone.
Seems the enterprise manager update table didn't move the data first. Just drops and re-adds the table with the additional collumn. DOH!
No problem. I have daily back ups and hourly transaction logs. How bad could it be... Just restore 2 back ups, run some transaction logs....
Guess what, the db is in Simple recovery mode. Nothing in the transaction logs.
Still running a 102 degree fever. 3 levels of management watching. Restore back up from Day 3. Restore back up from today. Merge 2 databases back together. Admit complete ignorance as to any changes that occurred in the missing 12 hour window. Write groveling note to all 50,000 employees who now must go back into the system to verify their employment options. Instill great confidence in same 50k employees that I'm not #$@ them over with other bugs...
The only upside of the whole adventure is that business recovered before we finished printing up pink slips. Of the 4k folks slotted to go, we only ended up dropping 14 true misfits.