Careful What You Put in Writing!

E-mail is the predominate mode of communication these days. It’s fast, efficient, and easy. The only problem with it is that you leave behind a trail of communications that can come back to bite you.

Case in point. Politico.com’s Shenanigans blog uncovered a heated exchange between an executive assistant at lobbying firm McBee Strategic and the cantankerous office manager of Congressman Jim McDermott’s DC office, Elizabeth Becton. In the exchange, the executive assistant unleashes Becton’s furies by referring to her as “Liz”. In response to an e-mail the exec assistant began with “Hi Liz”, Becton responded with a curt “Who is Liz?”. While the McBee employee apologized profusely, Ms. Becton didn’t let up, getting ruder and meaner in further e-mails. See the full exchange of e-mails here: http://www.politico.com/blogs/anneschroeder/0609/No_namecalling.html?showall.

As can often happen in today’s world, this chain of e-mails made its way to the web, via Politico.com, and they’ve posted the whole exchange. You’ll the find the McBee representative to be apologetic and polite, while Liz responds with increasing anger and contempt.

The lessons to be learned here are:
-Don’t put things in writing that you wouldn’t want to be broadcast on the Web.
-Tone and intent can be really difficult to decipher in e-mail.
-Sometimes it really is just better to pick up the phone.
-Don’t call Elizabeth Becton “Liz”.