Confess any stupid mistakes you've made with e-mail

[prolesunited]

I'll start.

Someone at work sent out an e-mail to all employees stating what a good Christian Bush is and urging them to sign a petition for school prayer.

I thought it was highly inappropriate and was trying to forward the e-mail to a big boss saying so and that the practice should be prohibited.

Unfortunately, I wasn't at my terminal and accessing my e-mail through an Internet interface. I got confused and accidently forwarded the message to the entire staff again.

He replied that he agreed and that it had been dealt with. Then I had to confess that I e-mailed it again. I open my e-mail today only to find an even higher up boss chastising me along with several messages from colleagues asking me why I sent them that message.

So, what mistakes or trouble have you caused with e-mail? Please don't let me think I'm the only one.

[Carni]

1. emailed a boss of another dept about how inept my boss was

When I was vying for a transfer to another dept...to this day I don't know how the hell I managed it (one of those reply all and got blind copies things) I got the transfer but it got REAL ugly.

[Wickerman]

2. My sister was running a small business - web based

I handled the web mastering and when she wasn't handy, incoming mail. A surfer solicited a product sample via the email system. The request was particularly cutesy and annoying, the person really seemed like a scammer. I hadn't slept for days, was in the middle of a big project, had some personal stuff going on in addition. In very impolite terms I told my sister my opinion of the emailer's request and what she could do with it...

Of course, I stooopidly hit reply rather than forward. A decade of email and I had never done that before. Needless to say the "customer" sent me an email telling me what a moron I was, etc, etc. It was actually pretty funny, but I felt horrible about it. No one deserves that kind of crap in their in-box. I apologized profusely, for the little that was worth.

Reminded me that its really not necessary to write such nasty crap - whether the person who you are referring to can see it or not.

[pagerbear]

3. I was temping in an HR department

...and was going to send an offer letter to a department head for his approval. I didn't understand the email system, and while I thought I was accessing a drop-down list of the entire deparmtent to choose his name from, the click actually sent the email to the entire department. Including the offer letter for someone who was to be hired, with salary information!

I was leaving soon anyway, and I chose to make that my last day there!

[DS1]

4. Photoshopped a shark's head over our corporate lawyers head in a photo and

emailed it to ~him~ and not the person who asked for it.

DOH!

Luckily I was the network ~and~ mail admin so I unplugged their office from the WAN and deleted it before he had managed to check his mail.

Close call.

[Dookus]

5. Amazingly, I've been lucky to date...

but two good experiences come to mind:

first, was when the VP of Human Resources at one company, a really nasty woman, tried to send an email to the executive staff about the dismissal of a senior employee. She sent it to the whole company. Her email was mean-spirited, nasty, disparaging and plain rude.

Second was when I was doing email tech support for our company, and I received an email from a customer I'd worked with in the past. Evidently, he chose the wrong name in the list, and sent my department a very detailed account of his problems with women that clearly was intended only for a very close friend.

[Melsky]

6. Watch out for the "reply all" button

I accidentally did this with my husband. It was for a party at his work and I made some snotty comments about his firm. Too bad it went to his boss too. That was when I first started using email.

I have been on the recieving end as well. I had sent a friend a painting I did of him, which he loved. He sent the jpg to people in his office, and one of them did the "reply all" mistake with some mean comments about my art.

[prolesunited]

7. Thanks

I don't feel so bad now. In fact, it appears if some of you have done even worse.

[HEyHEY]

8. I was 20 and broke 4000 kilometres from home

I needed money, so I sent a big sob story (that was true) to my Dad. But I accidentally sent it to a Hotmail address instead of an AOL address, someone I never knew or met emailed me back wishing me luck and saying I had the wrong address.

[Generic Other]

9. Got in a stupid argument about "shrimp" on all-staff

A co-worker was informing others of a speaker who had written a book about environmental issues in the shrimp industry who was scheduled to come to our workplace. Another collegue mistook the announcement for an invitation to an "all-you-can-eat" shrimpfest. This person was offended at the frivolous use of the all-staff email. A work flamefest ensued. 1000 people read the silly email exchanges. We were chastised by admins to no avail. Everytime the dumb topic died down, someone discovered it on their email and commented. Even today, the mere mention of "shrimp" evokes a snicker at work.

[ScreamingMeemie]

10. I sent the wrong appraisal to the wrong company.

I do home appraising and sent off an appraisal which should have gone to one company to another. Lame I know, but it can have serious repercussions.

[NightTrain]

11. A couple of years back, my friend Cheryl send out a mess e-mail...

...asking folks to send their best wishes to her husband Joe on the upcoming occasion of his 45th birthday. So I wrote back to Cheryl, "I'll do more than just send Joe my best wishes. What size cock ring does he wear?"

Unfortunately, I neglected to hit "Reply to Sender Only," which meant the entire mailing list received my reply, including Cheryl's 80-something grandparents! Can you say, "embarrassed?"

[Donkeyboy75]

12. This one might be long, so forgive me.

I still keep in touch with a group of good friends from college. We tend to get together three weekends or so a year to relive old times. One of my friends was a roommate of mine for two years, and he is never shy about telling others how flatulent I am in the morning (yes, it's bad). We also like to drink

My wife and my ex-roommate's wife (we'll call her Doris) went to college with us, and we all are good friends. About three days before an impending get-together, my wife e-mailed Doris with the plans, and talked about how we had just moved into a two-bedroom place, so nobody would have to smell my farts. As it turns out, Doris meant to hit reply to my wife, but instead hit reply to her ENITRE 3,000+ employee company. The gist of it involved "fuck the boys, they can sleep in a room together. We girls can tickle each other and have naked pillow fights while they fart all over each other."

Guess what? Didn't go over so well. She was inches from being fired (as she has a pretty high position at her company), and had to apologize to the president and the VPs personally for her mistake. It happened about two years ago, and she still cringes and feels a bit sick when we joke about it.

[ironflange]

13. I uploaded my pic for the gallery

But I made a booboo and sent an old avatar instead. Skinner got mad at me.

[prolesunited]

14. Oh, that's not so bad

I'm sure he really wasn't "mad." Believe me, I'm sure people around here are guilty of much more serious infractions that would make him truly angry.

Is your pic posted in the gallery yet?

[ironflange]

16. Yes

My ugly mug is in there now.

[pmbryant]

15. Oh that's happened to me

Many years back, when I worked at the University of Hawaii, I was becoming very displeased with how the director and administration of the university institute I was working for was handling an issue related to another staff member for whom I had tremendous respect. So I rattled off a quick e-mail rant to my significant other.

I send her emails every day, so how could I mess that up? But I sure did.

I somehow sent it to a person of the same name, but who was one of the administrative assistants in the director's office. Of all the places for this misdirected email to go, it went right to the office of those I was ranting about! Anyway, this person sent it back to me with a brief note saying something like "I don't think this was intended for me."

I don't know if anything happened behind the scenes, but things sure didn't improve, at least. The fellow involved ended up leaving Hawaii for a better job, since the administration stubbornly refused to properly promote him there, and much of my enthusiasm for the place left with him. I left Hawaii a year later.

I hope things go more smoothly for you.

Peter