Many years ago I worked in London with a woman called Claire, who was the company’s secretary. She was responsible for organising meetings, the staff Christmas party and anyone’s leaving do, among other things. With the advent of email, she probably thought her job had become much easier.
In many ways that was true. With one click of a button she could notify the whole company about Colin or Mark’s leaving party in the bar next door or a fire alarm test the following week. One afternoon, however, one of her emails was far more memorable than the rest:
“On Friday at 4.00pm we shall gather in the conference room for Mark’s leaving drinks. A selection of soft drinks and nipples will be available.”
One of my colleagues, Adam, then nineteen years old, quickly emailed Claire back with much enthusiasm, stating he was especially looking forward to the nipple selection.
Poor Claire. If only she’d taken a minute to proofread her email before sending it to EVERYONE in the company, she would have seen that glaring typo and corrected it to “drinks and nibbles”.
She left the company a few months later.
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