Be careful out there.
The last couple of weeks I've caught myself saying too much in an email.
Had to slap myself twice today.
Emails are forever.?ÿ
And no Cow these were work related not the other kind.?ÿ
Emails are forever and hitting Reply All could be very, very bad.
As the wife is a teacher of Seventh and Eighth Graders the current section of one class she co-teaches involves educating those young minds as to the hazards of the world around them and, like you said, emails are forever.?ÿ Today a parole officer talked for the entire class period and the kids want her to come back tomorrow because they are waking up to the potential dangers.?ÿ One story today involved a 16 year-old who took his Dad's pickup without permission and was stopped for some minor offense.?ÿ Then the officer noticed a large beer cooler in the truck bed.?ÿ Turned out it was full of unopened beer cans and lukewarm water left over from Dad's last adventure.?ÿ The kid and his buddy were charged with Minor In Possession.?ÿ There were some empty cans rolling around on the truck bed that "could" have been consumed.
Really??ÿ MIP for that??ÿ Kids might be stupid but I don't think even they would drink warm beer.?ÿ Gross.
@holy-cow I had a near mis-adventure along those lines. Borrowed my parent's car, and was out with my girlfriend, first year I had my driver's license. Town cop decided to check out the parked car. Asked me about the brown paper bag on the on the floor of the back seat. I grabbed it, looked inside, saw the six-pack, and reeled in surprise and dismay. He took the bag, my license and car registration, went back to his car, and left me stewing for 15-20 minutes. Came back and handed me the bag, said "They're all empty. Go home, boy, you're playin' with fire." I remembered seeing some empty, some still with the caps on them. When I got home, I checked, there were three empty, with no caps, and three empty with the caps replaced, something neither of my parents ever did. I think he dumped the beer and and gave me a pass after checking me out. I suspect he may even have enjoyed a beer on a slow night.
One of the better points about working for a time at the "The Big Austin Based Survey Machine, Inc." is the week-long training/orientation for managers.?ÿ
In the session run by the in-house counsel there is some great email advice: The "E" in email stands for evidence; don't write anything in an email that would wouldn't want to reread, aloud, on a witness stand, in front of a jury.?ÿ?ÿ
Many times have I typed up a scathing email, 3 paragraphs long. Then promptly deleted it. It did help to get it out of my system.
Now that's funny.?ÿ My dad is 68 and has a story like that.?ÿ Him and a couple buddies were parked on an approach in rural North Dakota sipping beers when a sheriff rolled up.?ÿ He dumped the beers and told them to go home, following them the whole way.?ÿ He says he was lucky it got handled like this because if the sheriff took them to jail there would have been hell to pay from his dad.
I type up mine in Word, go back to whatever I am doing until I calm down, then read it over again, open up a new email, and type a nice bland message containing the facts without editorializing.
If I type it into an open email I might just fire it off without thinking one day. I know a few colleagues who did that, and found themselves out of work within 24 hours.
In late summer of 1980 my brother came home on leave from the Air Force. A few of us decided to have a party and got a keg. I had turned 21 just a few months prior. After about 5 of us hit the keg for a while, we decided we needed more people, so we filled our mason jars and started hoofing it up the street to the local Quick Mart to recruit some attendees. We didn't make it far before a City Cop (we called them Town Clowns) pulled over and flip on the lights. Two of us were of legal drinking age. The rest were not.
My brother refused to give them his California drivers license, instead handing them his military mess card stating "I can drink on any base in the world with this card." They didn't see the humor. As they checked IDs, they told us that regardless of age, we couldn't have open containers in public, walking along a state highway. One of us asked if we would be okay if we had lids on the jars? I chimed up "I got a lid" (remember, this is 1980). One of the cops snaps back "if I see a lid, you're going to jail." I reached in my shirt pocket and pulled out the Mason jar lid and proudly displayed it. Again, they failed to see the humor.
Fortunately, we had our "get out of jail free" person in the group. His dad was the Assistant County Sheriff. When they saw his name, they asked if he was related? Yep, he's my dad. They told us to pour out the jars and let us go.
Ever since, when I hear the word "lid" I pop up with "I see it and you're going to jail." My daughters even do it now in tribute to their late Uncle Terry.
?ÿ
@james-fleming?ÿ I remember when the machine was getting started back in the mid '80's.?ÿ Rapid expansion.?ÿ They do make a good point about emails and I kept same policy for last 30 years with a few slips.
I remember lids.?ÿ Come to think of it I can't imagine where the term came from..?
Why it's never a good idea to respond to emails post cocktail hour.
I served on the local school board between 1987 and 1991.?ÿ No four trillion cell phones, emails and texting 24/7.?ÿ Communication was by letter or direct phone calls to your home/business.
Have served on the same board a second time from 2013 to present.?ÿ Emails nearly every day.?ÿ We have learned to be VEWY VEWY KEHFUL with what we put in them.?ÿ Loose lips sink ships is more than a saying. It now refers to texts, photos and emails in addition to the traditional communication methods.?ÿ Anything may follow you many years after you thought it was hidden.
Current case involves Les Miles who used to be head football coach at LSU and was very successful there.?ÿ He has been the head football coach for University of Kansas.?ÿ Recently LSU released some of his history while there that included sexual harassment charges.?ÿ When interviewed for his current job by KU he was directly asked if he had any skeletons in his closet and his answer was "NO".?ÿ It appears he will be job hunting again and KU will be looking for anyone willing to take on a team that hasn't had a winning season since 2008.
