Once I was negotiating with a vendor (who shall remain nameless) who was getting frustrated with me and the deal I wanted. Instead of forwarding an email to his boss about me- he hit reply and sent the angry and unflattering email about me- back to me. Imagine the horror he must have felt upon that realization... Lol. Poor guy.
I am guilty! I might even be the nameless person. Here's what happened.
2008ish I was working for iMagic and I was about to deploy to a dealership to do some training. Well the Internet Manager for this dealership was writing some very strong demanding e-mails to my boss. So as a way to soften the mood, I wrote an e-mail to him and said something like, "Here's a woman who will be single forever, what man would want to put up with this on a daily basis." I sent this off late one night.
Well the next day I was at a dealership training and during a break I was checking e-mail when I opened the following response:
"Jerry, email is a funny thing isn't it. One wrong click and you've majorly F&*%-up. Luckily for you I have a very good sense of humor and I am a forgiving person." Then she went on to explain her thoughts on working as a woman in a dealership and basically scolded me, and she had every right to do so.
As I read that e-mail I become sick to my stomach and could not believe what I done. I felt very terrible about what I had wrote and was ashamed.
I wrote her a very apologetic e-mail and was sincere about every word I wrote. Luckily she still had me come for training and I ended up buying the dealership lunch to make amends. We both laugh about it today and I think she has forgiven me. This experience taught me some very valuable lessons.
Here are those lessons:
1. Never write e-mails late at night when tired.
2. Never put anything in writing that you would not want the entire world to read.
3. Never write an e-mail when consuming adult beverages.
I am not perfect, but I do learn from my mistakes.
So what's your embarrassing moment?