When Emails Go Bad

This morning, I got a forwarded email at work from a guy we'll call Joe that says "I think this was meant for you." And the original email is from another coworker and started off saying "I don't think you need to invite Joe to the meeting. You know more about the subject matter...."

Apparently, the author got confused and since he had just typed Joe's name, he must've also typed it in the To: line. Awkward.

This is the danger with emails, isn't it? Either accidentally sending to the wrong person, or BCC'ing someone you shouldn't, or forgetting to change the subject line, etc...

My friends and I have had, or witnessed, several debaucles through the years. I've seen people intend to send a message to someone else about a top U.S. official, only to accidentally send to the listserve of that entire organization...including said Official. I've seen a Communications staffer email, from a White House email account, a cartoon of President Bush in a flight suit to a friend, jokingly, with just the word "Hot."

Except she accidentally added the email address of a reporter as well.

I've seen replies to Mass Emails at work that last for DAYS because everyone continues to Reply All, only to say "please stop replying to all". And these are supposedly Really Smart People. Hmm.

And, I personally have made mistakes like the time I had to dis-invite a guy to an event. I'm not going to explain why because you'll probably think I'm a horrible person no matter what, but in any case, I ran the email first by my friend to get her seal of approval on how I delivered the news. After she reviewed and sent back to me, I forwarded it to the guy, erasing her stuff.

But what didn't I erase? The subject line I had sent to her that said "Hey, do you think this sounds bad?"

Awkward.

But, I've also been the victim of email mishaps so what goes around comes around. Years ago, a nice Diplomatic Security agent emailed me to ask me out.

A few minutes later: He recalled the email.

And maybe it would've stung if I was really into this guy, but all I could do was burst out laughing, forward to my friend, and ask "Did I really just get RECALLED on a DATE?!"

In the end, he had some excuse, that I can no longer remember, for the glitch and he actually did mean to ask me out (and we did go out, where we had ANOTHER glitch, that I'll relay some other time) but I've loved having that incident in my portfolio of Dating Mishaps.

Moral of the story - double check before you hit Send...or Recall.