If You're Sick...

...don't try to do anything where you could make a mistake that you might regret.  This story might be confusing, but I'm trying to protect identities.

Here's what happened:

Someone emailed all the ADs about Athletics (a higher up person).  It was about swimming and had an attachment.  We don't have swimming, so I deleted the email.

A few hours later I get another email that said "Swimming...Wrong form."  The text of the email said something like: "So-and-so saved the old file instead of the new one and so I attached the wrong form. I'll make sure that I talk to so-and-so  and they know how to save things properly."  FYI: so-and-so is one of her employees.

I saw this email and immediately thought to forward it to my colleague who has had some interesting experiences, as I have, with this higher up person (same one who emailed my boss back in the fall reprimanding me for a student who called their office...which I did not know was wrong).  In my fog, I REPLIED instead and wrote: "I can't believe they emailed the whole state and threw the employee under the bus.  What is wrong with this person?"  Ooops!

The person wrote me back and said "I didn't email the whole state.  I just thought everyone should know that the employee messed up and I looked like a fool.  I guess that's the danger of email...one missed keystroke.  And there's probably a lot more wrong with me than that. And I'm guessing you meant to email your principal, so I'm doing it for you."

For one, I could care less about the email going to my principal and I think it's funny that they think they have power in that way.  I wrote back, apologizing for my email but I also wrote: "I'm glad you know how I feel about this.  You did not look like a fool.  Obviously, from my email, it's easy to make a mistake and I don't think anyone would think twice about it if you had just said 'please use this new form.'  It's a simple mistake."

They wrote back saying: "I have no response except good grief."

Oh man. I feel a little sick to my stomach that this happened, but in some ways, I just don't care.  It's not okay to reprimand or badmouth or throw a colleague under the bus in front of other people.  Period.  Not that I am the queen of professionalism here, but you just can't do stuff like that.  And I don't care who knows it.  I still think it's pretty crappy what that person did to a colleague.

So, there go my chances to be President of the USA.

UPDATE: Here's the response I got from my boss: Wow.  I think we need to give you a raise.   Good grief! J

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here's the response from my sports colleague: I am now dumber for having read through all these emails. J – way to stand up for the little guy.  You are like the Erin Brokavich of ADs.

At least I get to work with some people who crack me up.