Pressing 'send' and regretting it

[Pale Rider]

Intended humorous remarks about killing vegans have backfired on a food magazine editor.

William Sitwell has quit after his email was published by the recipient - a freelance looking for work.

As a journalist he ought to know better, but the recipient has done him no favours by publishing what was a notionally private exchange between them.

I sometimes receive emails from colleagues with content I wouldn't commit to paper - swear words, and on one occasion, a dirty joke.

Different rules could apply outside of a work setting, but I wouldn't send that sort of stuff in any context.

Have you ever pressed 'send' and lived to regret it?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46042314

 

[Electric_Andy]

Yes. I was working in NZ at a very boring job. I was also going through a troubled time with depression and alcohol. I had written a few e-mails to my friend, mostly saying how much I hated the job and how I had phoned in sick the other day because I'd had too much vodka the night before. I left the job a few days later, then got a call from the agency to say the employer had seen my sent items and was not impressed! I was taken off the agency's books and never worked in Auckland again!

 

[Heltor Chasca]

In a past life, working in London for a wholesale travel supplier as an account manager, I was a go between for my client here in the U.K. and another supplier out in Africa.

The client was a small account but very high maintenance. I let steam off by telling the guy in Africa what I thought of them and could he ‘pull finger’ to get them off my back about something. You guessed it: Somehow I sent that whinging email to my client too.

Express trip down to the florist for a delivery in person to the person who received my email. Grovel isn’t the word.

 

[Rooster1]

I once accidentally CC'd an email that had a minor insult about the unintended cc'd recipient. I learnt fast never to put anything in an email that I would not say out loud.

 

[AndyRM]

Yep, though not entirely my fault...

I was the designer on a job for a particularly difficult client, and had been complaining about him over email with the campaign manager. When we got to sending through final artwork she forwarded the whole email thread.

Fortunately he sort of saw the funny side, gave me a call to apologise and we ended up going out for lunch together, apparently he hadn't realised how difficult he had been!

 

[Chris S]

Somebody at the company I worked for accidentally sent his expense sheet to all the staff. They were interesting to say the least.

 

[sheddy]

my personal email protocol -
1. Have a keyboard rant
2. Mull it over for a bit, reread
3. Delete draft

 

[PK99]

my personal email protocol -
1. Have a keyboard rant
2. Mull it over for a bit, reread
3. Delete draft

Good idea there is to not put the Recipient in the to field, just do the rant risk free. Very cathartic it is too!

 

[Globalti]

Oh yes, I've written stuff in an email and then a few days later been horrified to see that my correspondent has forwarded the entire thread to the person about whom I was grousing. I just had to hope they wouldn't bother reading down. And I've seen the same done with me as the subject as well, although nothing malicious.

Many years ago, early in the email age we were trying and failing to collect quite a big payment from the owner of a Syrian factory. My boss was getting increasingly aggressive about it and kept saying: "You effing tell him.... " etc., which I duly did in as diplomatic a language as I could manage, pressing "send" and swallowing hard. A few weeks later the two of us found ourselves in the customer's office, a typical big Arabic office with dozens of seats lining the walls. The customer sat at his big man desk glowering at us and nothing was said for ten minutes until just about everybody of any consequence from the company was sitting in silence, then the owner cleared his throat, looked at my boss and shouted: "Mr X, I will NOT pay you your money!" Honour had to be seen to be restored so there followed the most cringe-worthy ten minutes of the smarmiest arslikhan I have ever witnessed by my boss. He deserved it. We got paid soon afterwards.

 

[Smokin Joe]

Gmail gives you an option of a thirty second delay between pressing send and the email going, during which you can change your mind. I use it now after accidently sending a highly insulting email about a relative in law to that relative herself. Her family hasn't spoken to us since which is a blessing as I couldn't stand them.

 

[Adam4868]

The amount of texts I've sent when pi55ed !
No wonder I've no friends

 

[winjim]

I once knew somebody who inadvertently outed an entire university Pride society by using CC instead of BCC in an email to its members.

 

[swee'pea99]

Good idea there is to not put the Recipient in the to field, just do the rant risk free. Very cathartic it is too!

I put myself as the recipient for anything 'borderline' - then when I receive it, I try to put myself in the position of the intended ultimate recipient. Then I delete it.

 

[Moodyman]

A colleague had been dealing with a high level complaint from a difficult customer. There had been lots of emails back and forth between them, except on this occasion she copied in the CEO of the organisation.

The CEO emailed the colleague asking for a rundown on the issues which he provided. However, on one of the points he answered "not a scooby doo what she's on about, think she's a bit doo lally". But, he sent the email to the customer and not the CEO.

 

[Bazzer]

Very very close to the regret stage.
A colleague asked me for the email address of a Government agency we sometimes have to deal with and which when it was created, was to say the least, beset with teething problems. Because of the nature of work I was involved with at the time, I had a lot of dealings with them when it was first created and it was hard work. Wrong information, delays etc. Quite frankly utter incompetence.
When I sent the email I sounded off my views to manage his expectations. Alas, having autofilled the address in the CC box to copy it into the body of the email for my colleague, I left the agency address in the CC box.
It was passed to the head of the section of the agency we had to deal, who in turn contacted my bosses boss, with an explanation being demanded for my views.
Luckily, I could justify every comment and when examples were provided by way of reply, no response was received from the head of section.
The very close to regret stage was because in conversation with colleagues about the agency, I generally referred to amoeba having more skills than the people I was dealing with. Fortunately I left that bit out of the email.