Let me explain.
You're super pissed off with your friend and you heed your mother's advice and decide to write her a note. Except previously our parent's would have actually written the note. You know, with a pen and paper.
If you're young enough you'll know these items as ones you see in the movies, when they do a flashback. Or perhaps you've used a pen when signing a cheque.... nah you probably don't do that either.
Anyhow, instead of writing this note of frustration, you type it. Hitting each key with such force and conviction hoping your emotion is seeping through the screen. Except just like when our parens did such things, you never actually plan to send it. You're just writing it to make yourself feel better. You finish up, and just as you begin to feel better about the situaion, it happens. You hit the send button. All it took was one slight miss with a keystroke and it was done. Letter sent. A letter you never intended that friend to see, where you talk about her ugly dog and stupid neighbourhood, maybe her disfunctional family. Saying all the things you've ever thought, but would never dare say to her, or even out loud for that matter.
This particular situation hasn't happened to me, but I have sent some emails and texts too soon, or to the wrong person. One of my worst offences was when an old boss of mine called in sick...for the kagillionith (that's a number, right?) time. Fed up with the lack of leadership and sense of responsibility, I decided to text Jeff (my co-manager) about the surprise I felt inside when I received her phone call. However, you see, Jeff's name was directly above Jen's... aka my boss. And so as I typed out my message, "Surprise! she's sick again!" and then sent it, I was feeling grand about my snide remark that was likely to give Jeff a bit of a chuckle. So imagine my surprise when I received a phone call from Jen shortly following the sending of the message.
"Oh hey Jen- what's going on?
Is that some kid of joke, Shannon?
I'm confused- joke? huh?
Shannon, the text message you sent me."
OH SHIT!
I quickly check my phone and YUP, I sure did send that bitchy text to Jen instead of Jeff. Trying to come up with any sort of excuse was a failed attempt, because I wasn't prepared. Not that I would pride myself on lying, but really how do you manage your way out of that one? The answer is, you don't. You try to save face as much as possible and realize that your boss may have some trust issues with you in the future, and it's probably for the best if you move onto another job in the near future. Yes, that's exactly what I did. Not just because of that situation, but I wouldnt lie to you and tell you it didn't have some bearing on the decision.
So, while we think we can all hide behind our computer and phone screens, just make sure you can back up any comments you may want to make. And as a smart individual always warned me, never print, type or write anything you don't want to see in tomorrow's newspaper headlines. Because you never know who could see it and decide to pass it along. Oh and youngins', a newspaper is this large printed thin paper that you read the news off of. You know, prior to the computer screen.
