sometimes my blog writes itself
Written by
washwords on May 23, 2008 – 3:16 pmwork sends emails that make me laugh out loud sometimes all the time. What follows is today’s but for those who don’t like to read, here’s the bottom line: 1) the email we sent you ISN’T SPAM. DON’T DELETE IT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. and 2) (ha ha ha ha, that this is point 2,) : the infomation in said EMAIL THAT YOU ARE NOT TO DELETE is incorrect. please disregard it until further notice.
Here it is (and nope, I’m not even sayin what’s wrong with the grammar/spelling/syntax/plain English here (but hint: subject/verb agreement) :
In this week’s <newsletter>, we announced that our travel agency, z, would be sending you a pin number to access your Traveler’s Profile. Unfortunately, their parent company sent the email under their name, x, rather than under y, z, or p. This resulted in employees thinking they had received spam. These emails are not spam, they are bona fide emails from y that contain your pin number and password. Please do not destroy them.
On a separate note [me: HA HA HA], we have discovered that the passwords and pin numbers are not working and are we are working to resolve the issue. Please do not try to use them until p can fix the problem. In next week’s <newsletter>. we will announce when you will be able to access your profile using the pin number and password that were emailed to you. Please keep a copy of these emails for future reference.
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| 2.8 (1 person) |
Tags: bad emails, bad writing, confusing, confusion, delete, email, English, humor, language, making simple complicated, misnomers, misplaced modifiers, office, order, overheard, passwords, plain English, poor command of English language, poor syntax, spam, spelling, spelling error, technology, unclear antecedents, work, writing
Posted in words |
May 23rd, 2008 at 3:36 pm
So many letters… y????
http://3critical.wordpress.com
May 23rd, 2008 at 4:29 pm
that was part of the funny. The email from my office listed about 4 or 5 or 12 names for the one travel agent (who sent the infamous NOT SPAM password email. To me this made my workplace’s outrage that an email was sent by yet ANOTHER name ( (said travel company’s parent company) all the more ridiculous. Maybe ya had to be there?
May 23rd, 2008 at 4:58 pm
I just love this. Really. A few years ago,
the company I worked for, X, was bought out
by Y. A couple of weeks later all of the
UK-based employees of Y who were formerly
employed by X received mail that (basically)
said, “You’re fired.” The next day, a
messenger went to each of them and hand-
delivered a letter that (basically) said,
“Oops. Our bad. Only 70% of you were
supposed to have gotten that. Stay
tuned.” I suppose it was funniest to
those of us who weren’t affected.
May 23rd, 2008 at 5:01 pm
O M G. Gilahi, I’m literally LOL. That trumps mine by a mile!
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Oh my. These are some of the things I actually miss about the working world…such entertainment!
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:33 pm
I love corporate email red tape. <3
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:11 pm
hee hee. i’ll keep collecting them then. sadly, they aren’t hard to find if they usually contain a few more errors. Liz and “what Liz said” … ummm, spooky! I’m wondering if WLS follows L around so she can have the perfect name when she agrees with a Liz post.
May 24th, 2008 at 12:07 am
Yes, exactly! I’m her PR.
May 24th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Some people are inclined to forgive typos and grammatical errors in email. I am not one of those people. It’s writing, folks, and it really ought to be, like, CORRECT before you send it to a bunch of people. Especially employees.
You are lucky to have such a content-rich place of employment!
May 24th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Oh, and gilahi? Sadly, emails like that give us HR folks a bad rap. Know that when I send a “you’re fired” email, I always triple-check the distribution lists BEFORE I press “send”. (heh)