Most Embarassing Moment #11 - The Work Stories

Dedicated to my friend Josh, who always got a good laugh at my embarrassing work stories (who may even remember some more that I have blocked out.)

I worked at MyFamily.com for 4 years before Bobby started medical school. I held a position in the Human Resources Department and I did administrative-type stuff for them. Part of my job involved resetting people's passwords for our HR intranet site. This seemingly simple responsibility soon became the bane of my MyFamily.com existence. If an employee didn't log on once in a period of 30 days, the password would need to be reset. I was receiving angry emails from frustrated employees, and I myself was often frustrated with employees for not following instructions.

Well, our company had a call center filled with college students who for the most part did not want to be troubled with finicky passwords when trying to access their online paycheck, and were sometimes slightly indignant with me when they couldn't log on to the intranet site. Well there was one call center employee- we'll call him Jared, because that's his real name- who was especially rude and/or stupid. Actually, I can't remember what he said, but that's irrelevant anyway. I think we went back and forth with our emails and he was clearly not understanding what I was trying to communicate and he was being rude about it. Well, my friend Johanna and I used to forward the rude and/or stupid emails that people sent us to each other to have a laugh. I forwarded Jared's email to Johanna as was customary and asked her about it later. She said she didn't get it. Oops, I had made this mistake before. I quickly check my outbox to confirm that I had in fact hit "reply" instead of "forward."

Here's what I emailed to Jared: "Can you believe this guy? Did he even read my email? What a jerk!"

It was too late to try and "unsend." The version of Microsoft Outlook had an "unsend" button, which I'm convinced never really works. (I've tried to use it in vain many times.)

The worst part is, he emailed me back and apologized. He said, "Don't worry. Sometimes I am a jerk. My friends tell me so all the time." I felt awful!

Next story...

One year I was really into American Idol. One night this kid sang, "Every Little Step I Take" by Bobby Brown. I LOVE that song! It just takes me back... to a simpler time, you know? Anyway, he got kicked off and I felt bad for him and I played the song he sang in my head the whole next day. So the morning after I got to work pretty early. Noone was around yet and I got up to get a drink out of the drinking fountain. On my way back to my desk, I got a little carried away and forgot where I was and started dancing to the music playing in my head. "Every little step I take- you will be there... every little step I ma-ake, we'll be to geth er..." I kind of step and cock my head to the right and kick my foot back. You know- with a little attitude, like my sister Julia the dancer would say. With my head cocked to the right, I see our company's CEO, Tom has just left the bathroom and he runs right into me, not expecting me to stop to dance to the silent music that only I can hear because it's playing in my head. Now that was embarrassing. I can't remember what I said, but I'm sure it was a great cover. Something like, "er.. uh, sorry Tom."

Speaking of Julia and embarrassing work stories, she has one I'd like to share here. (I have no problem humiliating her on my blog since she informed me this morning that she's been watching home videos from my awkward years with her boyfriend at my Dad's house.) Once Julia came in to visit me at work. She asked where the bathroom was. I told her it was around the corner and so she followed my instructions so she could go and well, you know. So she comes back, laughing her head off, and I'm like, "what, what happened?" She said after she came out of the bathroom, someone was on their way in, so she smiled and held the door open. The person gave her a really strange look and it was only after the door swung shut that she realized she had been using the men's restroom and had just held the door (which was very clearly marked by the way) for a man! I laugh so hard when I picture Julia just standing there holding the door with a big smile on her face! It helps make the story funnier that the man she held the door open for is maybe one of the most socially awkard people I've ever encountered in my life.