In a heroic effort to make me feel better about making a complete idiot of myself, my friend who I originally had intended for the email (see post below for reference) sent me an article about email and posting fax paus'. Apparently, they happen somewhat frequently. These two especially amused me.
"A client asked for a rather time-consuming research project . . . in fact, it became kind of a boondoggle," he writes. "So when the junior staff member working on it forwarded the results to the team leader, she slugged the e-mail 'Your dumb-ass project.' Unfortunately, the team leader simply forwarded the e-mail to the client without changing the subject line."
"During the recent telecom crash, I was involved in executing a major downsizing," recalls a reader who asked not to be named. "In e-mailing one of the near-final plans late one night, I accidentally selected the wrong 'Jim' in my address list - instead of sending the layoff list to my divisional vice president, I sent it to one of our most troublesome and underperforming employees. This individual would have been on the layoff list even if it were only one person long. . . . You can imagine the painful phone call I had to make, asking this usually uncooperative person to please not disclose the news until the entire plan was executed. To his credit, he did cooperate, but I think it was mostly due to the generous severance they all received."
