Blogocentric Formulations

Always check the cc's

"30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS"  | May 14

Prompt ▼

What was the best/worst letter or email you ever received or wrote? Write about the situation surrounding that letter, and why it was so significant.

The worst email I ever wrote was during my first full-time job out of college. I was extremely frustrated with a casting director and their assistant, who just couldn't seem to return a signed contract and start paperwork. At first they sent back the contract but forgot to sign one of the pages. Then they sent back the fully-signed contract but no start forms. Then they sent back a start form that had been filled out, but not signed. Then they sent back a completed and signed start form, but the scan was so bad it was illegible. All the while asking where their payment was, which would prompt me explaining to them what was missing and/or needed to be fixed.

At one point, I got so frustrated that I fired off an email to my boss along the lines of OMG why can't they get it right and just send us what we need? What I didn't realize is that I had left the casting director and their assistant cc'ed on the email. it was my first and most prominent exposure to the issue of inadvertently copying someone on an email they should never have seen.

On the plus side, they never said anything about the email and the next time they sent their paperwork, it was 100% correct.

This scenario definitely taught me valuable lessons about email etiquette, such as:

          Don't talk shit in an email.

          If you are going to talk shit in an email, don't do it about people on the email chain.

          If you are going to talk shit in an email about people on the email chain, don't reply all.

          If you are going to talk shit in an email about people on the email chain, and you do reply all, double-check to make sure you delete the recipients you're talking shit about.

These are important life lessons in the information age!