E-Mail Calamities

An E-Mail Too Far

"Louis and I used to work on staff for the same magazine. After we left, we became regular contributors and regularly griped about how the magazine treated us. The big bone of contention? A revised writer's contract that took all your rights, your first born, and any spare internal organs.

"One day, Louis received the latest version of the contested contract from the magazine's editor in chief. Louis tore into the file with relish, inserting sarcastic comments, snarky observations about the editor's hair, and miscellaneous epithets. Then he forwarded the document to me for my amusement. Unfortunately, he'd also sent it to the big cheese.

"I immediately called Louis. 'Did you mean to CC the editor?' 'I did not!' bellowed Louis. Then I heard frantic typing in the background as he checked his out-box. '[Epithet deleted]!' he yelped. Louis never got a chance to sign that new contract."

Group Dynamics

"I was just two days short of completing my tour in the Air Force. I worked the graveyard shift as a dispatcher. One of my jobs involved generating a police blotter--a summary of 911 calls, police responses, and so on, which was sent to the base commander and virtually every other senior officer on the base.

"Just before my shift ended, one of my clueless coworkers called, desperately needing the evening's roster. (Like he couldn't have called during my 12-hour shift?) I slammed the phone down and e-mailed him the roster, noting, 'get it before shift next time, $@#$#$-face!' Unfortunately, I sent it to the entire police blotter group, from the General on down. Despite a deserved chewing out, I ultimately got off rather lightly--I was told to have a nice civilian life. I still cringe every time I think about my blunder."

Firewalls Do Not a Prison Make

"The IT department at the governor's office where I worked was very paranoid about security. You couldn't download anything--not even something as innocuous as QuickTime. But in spite of all their precautions and finger wagging, one day IT accidentally sent a huge file with the private addresses of state and local government employees--including law enforcement and fire personnel, judges, and probation officers--to the home computer of a state employee (me!). I looked at the file, realized what it was, and took precautions not to touch it with a 10-foot laser.

"I've since found work in the private sector--and upped my Valium intake."