Have you ever made a serious breach of office etiquette that made you want to call in sick? This hilarious conversation on Twitter has people sharing their stories of times they’ve screwed up in the workplace and ended up looking pretty unprofessional.
One user named Maurice started off the story round with a time he was annoyed when a business contact spelled his name wrong, so he called them out only to be told that they were just following his lead, and to take a look at his own signature. A lot of people were reminded of their own fails, and this thread was born.
Some of them can be blamed on Autocorrect, which has been “ducking” us over since its invention. It’s usually fairly benevolent when you send an unintentionally crude message to a friend and you both giggle like you’re 12 years old, but when you send it to the whole office, it can feel like the equivalent of having your pants rip while you’re giving a presentation. As much as we resent autocorrect, though, we’re not much better off without it. When you simply mistype, forget words, or send an email to the wrong person, unfortunately, you have nobody to blame but yourself.
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That is pretty correct. I find that most men tend to fall into one of these categories ... ;-)
In 2018, the United States Embassy in Australia accidentally distributed an email titled “meeting” inviting recipients to a “cat pajama-jam” with a picture of a cat wearing a Cookie Monster costume and offering a plate of cookies to illustrate. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the email also contained a section of Latin (the trusty sample text Lorem Ipsum, perhaps?) and a RSVP button. The public affairs counselor described the mistake as a “training error” made by a new hire learning their way around the email newsletter procedure.
Had the same problem! Only realised my mistake when one of my professors said he got an inquiry from an odd email account... I was mortified!
If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t notice your mistakes until the moment you’ve pressed the send button, it might be worth turning on the “undo send” feature on your email. Just make sure you don’t get too comfortable with it, or else you’ll start not noticing your mistakes until the buffer time has passed and it’s really sent.
Then the drug test came upon your return. "You know our anti-drug policy here, D."
My mom once sent an email to her boss to make him aware that "orders can be released now". Nothing autocorrect worthy, right? But we're brazilian, and the phrase goes "pedidos podem ser liberados agora". Instead of typing "pedidos", she typed "peidos"... which roughly translates to "farts can be released now". Stinks
A colleague who is very dear to me is called Mirella Marinaki. Why do I seem to always refer to her as Marinella???
Pray real hard they don't get shot or you'll be a prime suspect.
well, everybody has certain needs, although i can only wish to have day off from work for that :D
I podcast and one of the ертпы шт the check list my boss gave me was ask beforehand how a guest's name is pronounced to avid this embarrassment
Did she have a foreign keyboard? In some countries in central Europe, especially German speaking countries, 'Z' and 'Y' are exchanged when compared to the standard English layout (QWERTZ instead of QWERTY). Otherwise such a typo would be strange because 'Y' and 'Z' ar pretty far apart.
And this is why parents shouldn't fk with spelling just to show off their "uniqueness" at having a child. It's the child who has to spend the rest of their lives dealing with this s**t.
Or more likely judging from the surname, the family is not English, and therefore it is the correct spelling of the name Jessica in their country. I'm guessing at Polish, as that is how they prounounce the y and k - for example Christina would be spelt Krystyna in Polish, but is prounced the same.
Load More Replies...Your parents kinda set you up for life by spelling a relatively easy name as "Jessyka".
I also have a "unique" spelling of what is normally a male name. I am female. It has meant many decades of spelling, and explaining, my name. DON'T do this to your kid.
Instead of sending my resume as the attachment I sent a picture of a guinea pig wearing sunglasses that says "Deal With IT" to a job posting. The HR manager replied back and let me know....here is the picture for your enjoyment. 4ac3586b18...e6ea60.jpg
That's pretty awesome! As a hiring manager, I think I would give you a second chance, just because i laughed really hard.
Load More Replies...My real name is Jenica. I get Jessica, Jennifer and Jerrica all the time. Even if they get it close they spell it wrong, Jennica, Jenika, and so on. Most people say it incorrectly. It's like you mashed Jennifer and Jessica together. But I get je-knee-ka or je-niece-ee-uh or Jenny-ka all the time. I've had people I corresponded with via email eventually talk to me on the phone or in person and we're genuinely dumbfounded at what I look/sound like... I guess they assumed my race based on what they thought my name sounded like?! Literally have been told I don't look or sound like a Jenica... wtf? Once had a lady argue with me that my name was really Janice and that I spelled my own name wrong (if you switch the a and e Jenica becomes Janice).
Soooo, all those complaining that the name is weird, that's not the point. The name is in writing. It's just careless not to spell it as the person does.
I am Jane. Simple enough? Good old plain Jane. No, people want to spell it Jayne and put that even without asking me!
My coordinator (assistant) and I are BOTH named Jessika. We feel you.
Load More Replies...yea, this is your parents fault. stop trying to be clever or cute with spelling a typical name. it will never get spelled the way you want
My coordinator (assistant) and I are BOTH named Jessika. Both our names' spelling are culturally-derived, though different cultures. Neither of our families were trying to be clever or cute - my name is the DUTCH spelling and hers has to do with her family's tradition.
Load More Replies...Hey, namesake. I feel you! And to those of you presuming families either can't spell or are trying to be cute - try remembering that the world isn't American and names are written differently in different areas. The spelling of my name is the DUTCH spelling. And yes, a great number of the emails I get every day are addressed to Jessica... Even when my coordinator (assistant) is ALSO named Jessika (also culturally-derived, though different culture) and there are TWO of us with the same unusual spelling sending emails together, they still often come back Jessica because people don't notice.
Lot of people saying "don't give your kid a unique name" but I know a LOT of people with "normal," common names who hate them. In high school I had so many friends named Chris that we had to call them by their last names to keep it from getting confusing. There's nothing wrong with trying to be creative, and if a person truly hates their name, they can always get it legally changed or go by a nickname. I legally changed my very common name, and my husband goes by a nickname because he dislikes his also very common name.
I feel this. My first name is hyphenated, and the second part of it is Michele, with only one L - which is the French spelling. People constantly spell it with two L's, which doesn't bug me, it's a super minor and easy mistake to make, but the hyphenated name REALLY seems to confuse people (despite the fact that hyphenated last names aren't uncommon). So I get called all kinds of random things because people can't figure out that you just say the two names together. They're both really simple, easy to pronounce names. They just happen to be joined by a hyphen.
My name is spelled with 2 ll's, not 1, which is clearly in my signature line. It's generally not a big deal, but when I got an email from someone I had known for several years with my name misspelled I responded with, "Please note my name is spelled Michelle". She emailed me back with "No s**t, I've known you forever". Ummm ...
A coworker sent an email to our boss about the state of storage at the college facilities. She walked up with a copy of the email and said "I was unaware that this University engages in this kind of business. When did this department get started?" He reads the email title and groaned. Instead of stating "Current Status of the Warehouse.." He typed "Current Status of the Whorehouse." We all got a good chuckle out of it for a week or so.
I once sent an email starting with "Dear Mr xxx, I hope you ate well" instead of I hope you ARE well like a normal person would. Didn't notice until they responded with "why, yes I had a lovely salad for lunch and I am touched by your concern"
I make lots of typos. The majority of times I catch myself before I hit "send". Not always though. Once I started an e-mail to a client with a "Dead all" instead of "Dear all". Then, after some time I started an e-mail with a "Hell" instead of "Hello". Then, trying to correct myself and apologize, I typed "Hell agin" instead of "Hello again". They had a good laugh about it. And once I wished them "A great weekend". On a Tuesday. At 11 AM. Good times :D
I no longer refer to "auto correct" but rather "auto CORRUPT". Much more accurate.
I once wrote to a store trying to buy photography equipment. At the end I wrote kisses for my sweetie. I also had a letter open for my wife and wrote the end under a wrong letter.. The store wrote back asking what the hell is wrong with me.
I have had 2 embarrassing moments at work. Once I was working at a $2 shop and as I was serving a customer a wave of nausea came over me. I rang the bell for the manager (it was only I and the manager working at the time), she didn’t come so I rang again and again. Next thing you know I turn to the side and vomit everywhere in front of the customer. The manager FINALLY came sent me home, the worst thing was that I had to catch a train and then a bus home which was over an hour ride. I made sure I had a plastic bag just in case. I ended up sleeping on the train home. Second time I was pregnant and working in a supermarket, I struggled with morning sickness and asked to go to the bathroom coz I felt sick. I only made it to the locker room where I power chucked everywhere, I asked for the mop and bucket but my store manager sent me home (with pay) and cleaned it up himself.
You had a good boss.... Feel for ya on the morning sickness.
Load More Replies...My manager once sent and email the the executives in our company and wanted to say "sorry for the inconvenience" but she didn't realize she had said "sorry for the incontinence" I laughed so hard I fell off my chair,
At the hospital we can dictate medical reports to save time, we have an entire office just for typing them. The results, however, sometimes are a bit off. Thank goodness I always double-check or else one of my letters would have attested that instead of no peritonism the patient's abdomen showed no signs of patriotism.
There's a reason we were taught to proofread our work in school. It takes very little time and as this article points out, can save a great deal of embarrassment.
when i worked as telephone Operator and had to pick up phones in german, english and also french, i once asked a Client to hold the line saying "un moment, please"... yes, i said "un moment" with french Accent (since i was talking in french) and then added "please"... all my coworkers couldn't hold back their laughs
Several years ago I was building some technology for a group of tech firm clients, that included Microsoft, and Bill Gates participated in the project. Someone from one of the other companies sent me an email asking why our website was having problems and I responded that Microsoft needed to fix their buggy web server technology. After I clicked send, I had a panicked thought to check if anyone had been cc'ed on the email (I hadn't thought to check before responding). To my horror, I see listed all of Microsoft's offices worldwide! I freaked out and thought my career was surely over. Agonizing hours of waiting for the ramifications to land on my head turned into days... then weeks... months and years. Funny thing but I never heard a peep from anyone at Microsoft about it, and I didn't lose my job.
I've never had this happen; read all and have tears running down my legs.
A coworker sent an email to our boss about the state of storage at the college facilities. She walked up with a copy of the email and said "I was unaware that this University engages in this kind of business. When did this department get started?" He reads the email title and groaned. Instead of stating "Current Status of the Warehouse.." He typed "Current Status of the Whorehouse." We all got a good chuckle out of it for a week or so.
I once sent an email starting with "Dear Mr xxx, I hope you ate well" instead of I hope you ARE well like a normal person would. Didn't notice until they responded with "why, yes I had a lovely salad for lunch and I am touched by your concern"
I make lots of typos. The majority of times I catch myself before I hit "send". Not always though. Once I started an e-mail to a client with a "Dead all" instead of "Dear all". Then, after some time I started an e-mail with a "Hell" instead of "Hello". Then, trying to correct myself and apologize, I typed "Hell agin" instead of "Hello again". They had a good laugh about it. And once I wished them "A great weekend". On a Tuesday. At 11 AM. Good times :D
I no longer refer to "auto correct" but rather "auto CORRUPT". Much more accurate.
I once wrote to a store trying to buy photography equipment. At the end I wrote kisses for my sweetie. I also had a letter open for my wife and wrote the end under a wrong letter.. The store wrote back asking what the hell is wrong with me.
I have had 2 embarrassing moments at work. Once I was working at a $2 shop and as I was serving a customer a wave of nausea came over me. I rang the bell for the manager (it was only I and the manager working at the time), she didn’t come so I rang again and again. Next thing you know I turn to the side and vomit everywhere in front of the customer. The manager FINALLY came sent me home, the worst thing was that I had to catch a train and then a bus home which was over an hour ride. I made sure I had a plastic bag just in case. I ended up sleeping on the train home. Second time I was pregnant and working in a supermarket, I struggled with morning sickness and asked to go to the bathroom coz I felt sick. I only made it to the locker room where I power chucked everywhere, I asked for the mop and bucket but my store manager sent me home (with pay) and cleaned it up himself.
You had a good boss.... Feel for ya on the morning sickness.
Load More Replies...My manager once sent and email the the executives in our company and wanted to say "sorry for the inconvenience" but she didn't realize she had said "sorry for the incontinence" I laughed so hard I fell off my chair,
At the hospital we can dictate medical reports to save time, we have an entire office just for typing them. The results, however, sometimes are a bit off. Thank goodness I always double-check or else one of my letters would have attested that instead of no peritonism the patient's abdomen showed no signs of patriotism.
There's a reason we were taught to proofread our work in school. It takes very little time and as this article points out, can save a great deal of embarrassment.
when i worked as telephone Operator and had to pick up phones in german, english and also french, i once asked a Client to hold the line saying "un moment, please"... yes, i said "un moment" with french Accent (since i was talking in french) and then added "please"... all my coworkers couldn't hold back their laughs
Several years ago I was building some technology for a group of tech firm clients, that included Microsoft, and Bill Gates participated in the project. Someone from one of the other companies sent me an email asking why our website was having problems and I responded that Microsoft needed to fix their buggy web server technology. After I clicked send, I had a panicked thought to check if anyone had been cc'ed on the email (I hadn't thought to check before responding). To my horror, I see listed all of Microsoft's offices worldwide! I freaked out and thought my career was surely over. Agonizing hours of waiting for the ramifications to land on my head turned into days... then weeks... months and years. Funny thing but I never heard a peep from anyone at Microsoft about it, and I didn't lose my job.
I've never had this happen; read all and have tears running down my legs.