[Libby Huffman]

If you've ever sent an email to the wrong person, you know the feeling of embarrassment that ensues. It's much easier to take the proper precautions before sending an email than to apologize after the fact. Explore some common email mishaps and how they can affect you personally and professionally.

View The Full Article

[Chrissy Scivicque]

Someone I used to work with made a mistake once that involved me. She pulled the "oops, I meant to forward not reply" thing with an email I had sent. She wanted to forward it to another co-worker but instead, she sent it back to me. It said, "Chrissy should just chill out....blah, blah, blah..." I got SO mad. I responded back simply with, "I think you meant to forward this to someone else". She immediately came over to my office and was so apologetic. She obviously was just frustrated and didn't censor herself. It was actually kind of funny at the end of the day because I kept joking about it and bringing it up to make her feel embarrassed.

The thing we all have to remember is that people are people. We all make mistakes. We all, on occasion, shoot out hot headed things and then want to desperately take them back. But her mistake was a huge lesson for me. I try my best to think long and hard before I send out any email. And I've learned not to ever put snarky remarks like that in email form. They just stay in my head. Or between me, my boyfriend and a couple glasses of wine.

[badgergirl]

I had an email mishap today. Most of the office will be out of town on an annual trip. The HR Director asked me to send out one of the weekly emails that she usually sends out. I got the email all ready and selected the option to send it this coming Tuesday. Well, it didn't wait, instead it was sent today. Everyone has been teasing about a Tuesday email received on a Friday. Most are understanding since this is not a regular email for me. I quickly told the HR Director and sent out another email saying the email was sent early for the Holiday weekend. While the HR Director has laughed and made some jokes about it, she changed the quote under her signature to read: "Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently." - Henry Ford.

[galfriday]

Just reading about the email mishaps make me cringe. I too have had a few to call my own...but I'm happy to say it's usually typos, grammar mistakes, or sending to the wrong person (I meant to send to kimsmith, not kimberlybrown --- that darn Outlook auto-fill).

Many times I have started to forward an email to an office buddy to comment on how silly/funny/bad I think it was or email someone with a "racie" joke/comment...but as soon as I finish typing, I ask this question..."would I mind if this was in the newspaper?" And then I always hit delete. The company I work for is under the Atlanta Open Records policy, so at anytime the press can come in and look through our files and emails...and no matter how silly my email may be, I wouldn't want my joke or slam "out there." Instead, I usually pick up the phone to call my office buddy and make a comment if I really need to.

Thanks for talking about a very important and a very uncomfortable topic!

(by the way...someone should write an article about people who have the habit of using too many "quotes" and ...ellipses).

[bugzna2000]

It is bad when we do this kind of thing, but in the same vein, I'd like to add that when sending out an email to a group, you can avoid the problem of people replying back to everyone in the group. You simply send the email, typing your own name in the 'To' line and type the group addresses in the blind copy line. Then even when people make a mistake and 'reply all', it only goes back to the sender.

[Chrissy Scivicque]

Great suggestion Bugzna2000 - that is soooo helpful when people do that. It's also nice for confidentiality purposes. Sometimes, you don't want everyone to know the email addresses of all parties. Thanks for the input!

[Jodith]

Whenever I am creating a draft e-mail, I make a point of not including any addressees. Addressing is always the last step I make when writing e-mails. It's too easy address the e-mail and then part way through think you shouldn't send it to that person, but forget to delete it before you send it.

[mzimmerm]

People in my office tend to under use the reply all feature. When I send an email to a number of people to coordinate a project, inevitably I will get responses that are intended for the group but addressed only to me.

I'm totaly with Jodith about not entering an address until you're completely done with the email. Sometimes I even delete the address from emails I'm replying to just to make sure that I don't send it before I'm ready.

My biggest email faux pas is forgetting to attach items. I've sent many "oops" follow-up emails!