The Importance of “Recalling”

Several years ago when I was the Underwriting Assistant for Individual New Business (that title doesn’t quite fit on a business card FYI); I had the task of taking meeting minutes.

It was just around the Fall Daylight Savings Time switch and several of us were concerned about having to switch back to the late shift in order to accommodate agents and advisers that were in different time zones. It was decided that we were going to abolish this shift change and see how it worked out.

Now, I spell check EVERY e-mail many times. However if you happen to use a swear word in your e-mail that is considered correct….well….uh….if you don’t catch it with your eyes you’re going to send that out. I mass e-mailed a cuss word to my entire department and had no idea that I had done so. Or at least until I heard laughter all over the floor and one girl came in to my pod “Amy, did you read that e-mail you sent out? You replaced the word ‘shift’ with ‘shi(remove the f)t’. So instead of ‘No more late shift’ it said ‘No more late…’ well you get the idea.

Since I was still relatively new to the department my stomach instantly became knotted – I sent that e-mail to two team leaders AND the department manager. Frantically I stumbled back to my desk. Sent Folder > Select E-Mail > Action > Recall > Replace Message. But it was too late…the damage was already done. Once several people received the “Recall Notification” I heard one of the Case Coordinators say half laughing, “Nice try Amy!” from over the wall.

Anyway, the moral of the story….always get someone to read your e-mails before you send it out. Sometimes spell check doesn’t catch everything.