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The phrase a bad day at the office (also a bad day in the office) designates a day on which one has performed badly, especially at work; a day which has been unusually difficult or unsatisfactory.
This phrase originally referred to office work, but now chiefly occurs in extended use, especially in sporting contexts.
The following, for example, is from an article about Bready Cricket Club, Magheramason, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland—article by Ian Callender, published in the Belfast Telegraph (Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland) of Friday 10th August 2018 [page 53, column 1]:
Bready have lost only three league games season—at least one fewer than everyone else—and two of those were by two wickets and 11 runs. Their only really bad day at the office was when they went down by 133 runs—to Coleraine!
These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the phrase a bad day at the office (also a bad day in the office) that I have found:
1-: From Mr. and Mrs. Bowser, an unsigned short story published in The Detroit Free Press (Detroit, Michigan, USA) of Sunday 29th September 1895 [page 25, column 6]:
When Mr. Bowser let himself into the house with his latch-key, Mrs. Bowser was sitting in the back parlor. She knew by the way he banged the door shut and scuffed around the hall that something had happened, and nerved herself up to meet it. […]
[…]
“Now, then, Mrs. Bowser, I want to know whether this house is run by the superintendent of some idiot asylum or by the woman I made my wife several years ago to take care of my home?”
[…]
“Please tell me what particular thing you find fault with,” said Mrs. Bowser, as she realized that he had had a bad day at the office and wanted to get square by pitching into her.
2-: From a rewriting of the above-quoted short story, by ‘M. Quad’, published in the Bridgeton Evening News (Bridgeton, New Jersey, USA) of Monday 7th December 1896. In that version, the phrase occurs as follows in the title [page 2, column 5]:
NO BALM FOR BOWSER
HE DISCOVERS THE WOEFUL WASTEFULNESS OF HIS WIFE.
A Bad Day at the Office Is Followed by a Very Bad Evening at Home.
But the phrase a bad day at the office does not occur in the rewriting itself; in its stead is the following sentence [page 2, column 5]:
Something had gone wrong with Mr. Bowser at the office.
3-: From The Central City Democrat (Central City, Nebraska, USA) of Friday 21st May 1897 [page 1, column 3]—“we” refers to the Editor of that newspaper:
We were going home Wednesday evening discouraged and sorrowful. It had been a bad day in the office, and the dollars were mighty scarce, when we met Dan Brinkerhoff with a dollar in his hand. He said he had been saving it for us, and it was the only one he had seen in nine months and he never expected to have another.
4-: From the Emporia Daily Gazette (Emporia, Kansas, USA) of Tuesday 17th January 1899 [page 1, column 4]:
A good story is being told on a west side man today. The other evening he went home after a bad day in the office. His wife came in for a share of his bad humor. After ten minutes of growling he went out of the house and then she decided to have peace. She locked up the house and told him he could not get in until he promised to be decent. He would not promise to do better and his wife told him to stay out. He went to the barn and, taking a bucket, gathered all the eggs in the nests and going back, began to pelt the door. This made his wife firmer than ever and then she refused to let him in until he washed off the door. The husband then sat down on the porch to stay out in the cold all night, but his temper cooled with his toes and fingers and by an hour and a half he was giving the door the best scrubbing it had had in years. He got in. Every man can be conquered if the woman uses a little sense and firmness. Hurrah for the west side woman.
5-: From the following advertisement, published in The Daily Item (New Orleans, Louisiana, USA) of Thursday 6th February 1902 [page 9, column 5]:
Bad day at the office; throbbing head?
Gessler’s Magic Headache Waffers will cure the ache and freshen you for tomorrow’s work.
POCKET A BOX.
Max Gessler, Ph. C., Milwaukee, Wis.
6-: From What Comforts You?, published in The Young Soldier and Official Gazette of the Junior Soldiers of The Salvation Army (London, England) of Saturday 13th June 1903 [page 166, column 1]:
“I have had a bad day at the office,” says young Wilson. “Everything has gone wrong, and the Governor is vexed with me. I do feel in the dumps.”
And instead of trying to find out why the Governor is vexed, and how he can do better to-morrow, young Wilson gets among his companions, and together they begin to abuse Governors and offices, and rules and work, till Wilson comes back to supper quite cheered up, feeling he is a perfect martyr, the most ill-used boy in the whole town. And that is the way he gets comfort. So now I think you will know the kind of lad that Wilson is.
7-: From The News (Lynchburg, Virginia, USA) of Wednesday 25th April 1906 [page 8, column 2]:
LAUGH AND GROW FAT.
A good laugh is better than a dose of medicine. After toiling and struggling with the trials and perplexing problems of a busy day, it is very refreshing and helpful to mind as well as body, to spend an hour with some good lecturer and impersonator who can make us forget our troubles. Just such a person is Phidelah Rice, the funny man from Colorado. If you have had a bad day in the office, come to hear him; if the cook has gone off in a pet, don’t fail to hear this Western genius; if your best girl has gone back on you, spend an hour with Mr. Rice and forget your troubles. If you have a bad case of the blues, come to the Assembly Hall on May 1st at 8:30 p. m. For the benefit of the Rivermont Avenue Methodist church. Admission, 50 cents; tickets at N. H. Lavinder’s.
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