a little story from work

astroglide · #1 11-10-2005, 06:41 PM

i've got a friend named randy that i've known since i was like 12 years old. i got him a job here as a developer. he just sent me an instant message: "aaron has the social iq of a 4-year-old."

aaron is a co-founder of the company, and the lead developer of our project. he sits next to randy in an open area.

only he didn't send the message to me, he sent it to AARON.

so he comes out of a conference room with aaron, sits down, and instant messages me to tell me this. his hands are actually shaking from embarassment, and now both of them are doing the "serious talk" distraction thing with other people. "was that request handler supposed to be instantiated? interesting..."

they might as well talk about how they never noticed that the second hand on their watch was brown or that sort of thing. their thoughts are dominated by what just happened.

i don't know how well this translates in story form, but sitting here right now it is INSANE. this is a real life larry david moment.

#2 11-10-2005, 06:43 PM

I'm so glad I'm still in college and don't have a job yet.

Benal · #3 11-10-2005, 06:43 PM

LOL. Hilarious

mmbt0ne · #4 11-10-2005, 06:44 PM

daaaaaamn. We had something like this happen when I was working one semester. It didn't go to the main boss, but it was still incredibly awkward for the two people, and hilarious to everyone else.

The one thing NOT to do is try to play it off like a joke. That's what happened at my job, and it just made everything a lot more uncomfortable.

pokerdirty · #5 11-10-2005, 06:46 PM

oh man i wish this would happen to one guy at our office. he picks his nose with a pencil eraser. soooooo awkard.

Los Feliz Slim · #6 11-10-2005, 06:47 PM

I know someone who had an employee do this, then run into their office and try and delete it from their computer. Of course the email had been sent to the entire company so he was able to read it in short order.

RunDownHouse · #7 11-10-2005, 06:48 PM

Two days ago at work a very conservative coworker was talking about his religious beliefs, and going on about how he actually believes people in the Bible lived to be 300+ years old, his belief in creationism, etc. I IM'd another coworker, "I just don't understand his POV sometimes. Completely alien to me."

Except I IM'd it straight to ConservativeCoworker. Who sits directly next to me. He finished up his sentence, checked the IM, and turned to me.

"You know you sent that to me, right?"

"Yes." I blushed furiously in embarrassment, and blurted out, "It wasn't insulting or anything though!"

He only says, "Yeah, I know," and turns back to his computer. I count down the minutes until 6:30. Luckily it really wasn't insulting, so I can't imagine how Randy felt.

Los Feliz Slim · #8 11-10-2005, 06:50 PM

Sounds like that could've been much, much, worse.

NotMitch · #9 11-10-2005, 06:50 PM

[ QUOTE ]
i've got a friend named randy that i've known since i was like 12 years old. i got him a job here as a developer. he just sent me an instant message: "aaron has the social iq of a 4-year-old."

aaron is a co-founder of the company, and the lead developer of our project. he sits next to randy in an open area.

only he didn't send the message to me, he sent it to AARON.

so he comes out of a conference room with aaron, sits down, and instant messages me to tell me this. his hands are actually shaking from embarassment, and now both of them are doing the "serious talk" distraction thing with other people. "was that request handler supposed to be instantiated? interesting..."

they might as well talk about how they never noticed that the second hand on their watch was brown or that sort of thing. their thoughts are dominated by what just happened.

i don't know how well this translates in story form, but sitting here right now it is INSANE. this is a real life larry david moment.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thats bad, I had someone in my old group do that to a client. I also worked with the girl from this semi famous misdirected email. It was very funny when we were getting this as a forward and realized we knew who the girl was.

imported_anacardo · #10 11-10-2005, 06:51 PM

[ QUOTE ]
daaaaaamn. We had something like this happen when I was working one semester. It didn't go to the main boss, but it was still incredibly awkward for the two people, and hilarious to everyone else.

The one thing NOT to do is try to play it off like a joke. That's what happened at my job, and it just made everything a lot more uncomfortable.

[/ QUOTE ]

You speak the truth. The only way to get through this situation alive is to bite the bullet, back up what you said and possibly suggest / demand improvement, depending on the situation, all without starting a fight. The real best option is of course to eschew backbiting, but I guess very few of us can be said to have a perfect track record in that regard.