I'm sparing the details, both because what's left of my ego can't handle to have this incident immortalized and because the details are boring. Let's just say that I sent several versions of something that had teeny tiny mistakes in it. Mistakes that were sent to someone very important. Mistakes that I would think "What the hell is wrong with that girl?" if I was on the receiving end. Mistakes that would never exist period if I hadn't been trying to work while still sick and while 2 other people were in my office asking me questions. Mistakes---okay you get it.
So I feel like a complete and total idiot. I'm trying to figure out how to repair the receiving party's now-tainted-forever professional opinion of me. I never make mistakes like this and now I did it not once, not twice, but three times in a freaking 15 minute time frame.
I would like to...
- Crawl in a hole in a deep cave somewhere and hibernate until this has been forgotten (will that day come?), or
- Move. Yes, maybe I can move. I've always wanted to live in Ireland.
- Become a permanent resident of the space station. I have to go back to school and get my astrophysics degree. Hmmm...I need something much more immediate.
...Yet sadly, that will do nothing to undo the damage of today's "send" trifecta. Oh help, gods of forgiveness. Give me a pass on this one?
14 comments:
Hey kiddo, it ain't the end of the world, or even your upward mobility (probably ;>)). Unless your sendee is a curmudgeon (sp? No time to look it up.) he/she has got bigger things to be concerned about. In the Dale Carnegie course we used to teach people "When you lay an egg, step back and say "Hey look everyone. I laid an egg." Then people might decide you're human. It really works! Thanks to this little trick I didn't sit around beating my inner self black and blue the last two times I got fired. I was able to go out and have a few beers and a good laugh about how uptight some people are.
Notary sojac.
Smokey Stover
Do you hate me yet?
Smokey
Well, Gropey, I certainly did it... But 3 times in a row? Oh you're bad :)
Usually, when something like that happens to me I just try to move on. Because if I get all panicky it definately wouldn't help, if I try sending letters of apology and such it would only make me seem obsessed/desperate/pitiful etc... So I just try to froget about that and move on. Another thing I tell msyelf is that if it's meant to be it would still go exactly the way I was hoping for it to be, regardless of the incident, and that if it wasn't meant to be then even presenting msyelf in the bestest of lights imaginable wouldn't help. If this makes sense??
"I will meet it in the parking lot and kicks it's arse" Go girl ;)
Y'ouch, hope you have passed the cringing phase.
Good work with the Fight Club scenario and your Germs. Gropius 1, Bronchitis 0.
You should stay in bed next time you're sick darlin'
Place your hands on your head and step away from the keyboard, ma'am. ;-)
I'm sure it will be fine. I like the "recall" button if it's available (inside a corporation). But I would just send a note with the updated information and say "Please pardon the earlier mistakes. Interruptions and illness are bad for content accuracy." ;-)
Blame the bronchitis! I did something similar last winter. As soon as I explained that I was sick, I got a pass instantly from the party.
Blame THEM for making you work while you are sick....you get a pass even if it was three times in a row!
The 3rd option cracks me up - residing in the space station!!
Everyone gets to make mistakes - you know what? It's so OK. I doubt that the sum total of the aggravation caused by these teensy mistakes was measurable. Just a thought, but it might be OK to let it go with a laugh. If the receiving party has a sense of humor and empathy, which I imagine they might, then they're probably laughing too.
Get well!!
Ha yeah 3 times is rather excessive but hey if they don't respond or do anything about it, then move on. Sending apologies will make you look obsessive... walk it off =)
You're really good at coming up with topics that get us all thinking and often smiling. To me this one is a call for some practical advice gleaned from similar experiences. I remember a high school teacher exploring the thoughts that must follow when one has accidentally pulled the trigger on a loaded gun and the bullet is on its way to another person. That damnable send button is like the trigger of a loaded gun, so we need some way to engage the safety. I use a double safety for important emails. First and most important, I scan the "TO" box and then hit "Cut". Now my little gem isn't going anywhere until I unlock the safety by going back to the "TO" and doing a paste.
The second safety has to do with the fact that sometimes complex multi-paragraph emails have disappeared under my fumbling fingers, and I haven't been sure that the annoyingly time-consuming reconstruction recovered all the original points. Or covered them as well as the original. So for anything beyond a few sentences I am a great believer in frequent use of the "Save as a Draft" button. And of course those drafts have blank "TO" boxes.
So if you're writing anything of importance I suggest you use these safety latches. Yes, it takes a little practice to develop the habit, but avoiding one bad faux passe can make it worth while.
And these precautions apply even to blog responses. A good friend told me that last night he wrote a sentence intended to be part of a paragraph but hit the post instead of the preview button and sent off an almost meaningless response to something. He said "Please tell me I didn't do that."
I get so paranoid about sending emails to the wrong person, etc. I've done it a few times and fill with anxiety afterwards!
Bronchitis is evil. I've had it a few times.
I did it too. What do I do? I just move on...well, after fretting about it for sometime of course. :-(
To make me feel better, I always think that they know me professionally so whatever disaster I created by sending something out of the ordinary, they'll just think that maybe I had a bad day or I'm not feeling well.
Everyone makes mistakes, we are not perfect. Have a glass of wine, sit back and relax and don't move to Ireland. xoxo
But it really was a mistake! Surely they know that!!!
I hope it's not going to really cause a horrible outcome for you!
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