Thursday, March 11, 2010

Instant Messenger=Instant Shame

I can multitask like a maniac. Ask anyone. But with this ability comes an occasional lapse of concentration on the details. One such time resulted in one of the more embarrassing moments of my life a few years ago. I blame Instant Messaging.

We use IM for everything in my office, business and personal issues combined. I had been at my current job for about 90 days, barely past the probationary period but long enough to make some truly awesome friends. One of which is my partner in crime, the purchasing manager in the adjacent office.

I’ll be honest, we gossip…but only to each other. So, really it’s her fault too.

The owner of our company received a phone call from his ex-wife. I, in my eagerness to depart the latest nugget of knowledge that I was privy too, clicked on IM to share it. However, in my haste, I clicked on his name without realizing it and shared my gossip about him…with him.

As soon as I hit Enter, I realized what I had done.

How do you recover from that?

You don’t.

But as luck would have it, he is a great guy with an incredibly good sense of humor. He forgave me but it was weeks before I could look him in the eye again.

As for the girl in marketing…we would never be friends. That IM I sent listing all the reasons she was a fruitcake did not strike her funny at all.

She had no sense of humor.

6 comments:

  1. I have no sense of humor. Just look at my blog LOL Just kidding. :-)

    It's easy to misunderstand people, their personalities and intentions. Hopefully you and the girl in Marketing can bridge the misunderstanding one day.

    It IS lucky the guy cut you slack. Man I would've been in huge deep doo-doo if that had been me! LOL

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  2. Haha. I get butterflies just thinking about your mistake! I could IM all day. I freaking love it. I'd rather IM than talk on the phone. Is that bad?

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  3. Bethany: It is just too hard to stay mad at me.lol

    L&L: I do IM all day, still love it but I am more careful now. I check the name twice before I talk about anyone. I am bad.

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  4. Oh yes. IM can be a problem. Great story! Glad the guy had a good sense of humor.

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  5. Man, I can not tell how many times I have accidentally emailed the wrong person. Thankfully, it's never that I say something about them to them, but still...

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  6. Btw, I gave you the Sunshine Blog award. Thanks for brightening my days! :)

    http://aclairedawn.blogspot.com

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It helps to know I'm not just talking to myself.