Star*
call 911........call 911
I have said before I work in an office of all men. All younger men. All younger men who have aristocratic backgrounds. All who have gone to college, have degrees, nice homes, nice cars and who like to judge people by the clothes they wear, cars they drive and company they keep. Also without a doubt they are the most horrible gossips I have ever met. Ever.
They also have the most annoying habit of constantly correcting everyone. Occasionally I forget a comma, and will get my paper back with a huge red comma on it. Occasionally I will mispronounce an odd name and I will be told in front of everyone how to pronounce it. Fine, but I don't ever do the same to them. As a matter of fact I spell a phonetic sounding name out above a name when it's difficult for them. Not any more. Until Friday I have refused to do a battle of wits with an unarmed person.
Am I guilty of typos? Rarely at work. Am I guilty of misplacing a comma, semicolon or other punctuation? You bet I am. Do I do that when it goes out of the office to a customer, client or account? It could happen. So when I send inter-office memos trying to keep costs down and productivity up; could there be some short cuts? Sure.
Since I am not afforded the luxuries of the men, I asked one of them to scan a document and email it to me. He did, and I sent an email saying Mucho's Gracias Amigo. Just a lighthearted atmosphere or me not being serious because our office is supposedly very informal. I received an email back almost immediately in a coarse font stating "I do not speak Mexican, if you wish to convey a thanks please do so in an English based language."
So I sent him an email reply back that said in Latin -
I'm sorry you only speak one language.
Then every single little mistake for the rest of the day I took out my hot pink pen and circled every tiny little error and sent it back. I circled run on sentences. I circled punctuation that was incorrect. I circled where paragraphs were supposed to start but did not. I didn't write phonetic names above the correct names of customer and when they were slaughtered verbally I stood at their door ways and corrected them in front of the customers who were on the phone.
When they misfiled something I took it out and refiled it infront of them and then put up a note asking them to just place the pulled files on top, stating I would file. One man said "I know my alphabet." So I said "Okay which comes first? Mc before Master or M?" He stood there and I said A,B,C is not filing."
Later in the day they were both sitting at the conference table and I came in and handed them both a pile of corrected papers, and they asked if I was in a bad mood. I said "No, why would you ask that?" and they said "Because you've been drawing your little pink circles on our stuff all day and jumping in on our phone conversations with customers correcting names and stuff." I took a seat and said "When you constantly correct me and how I say names are you in a bad mood? When you come to me with things that have your LITTLE red marks all over them and make a huge deal about it in front of everyone are you in a bad mood or are you trying to prove a point? What would the point be? That you are smarter or a smarta$$ or that you can put me down or that you just get your jollies out of correcting someone or wasting my time and yours for little mistakes, because here is one day worth of each of your mistakes and wow I have to tell you both if this is going to continue I can really get technical. I just do not see the need to constantly correct and belittle people. It's an error - move on. It's a misunderstanding. Move on. Unless it's going to cost us money? Stop being so serious and MOVE ON. GET OVER yourselves already. Sheez."
With that I got up, took all the papers and said "I really AM sorry that you don't speak more than one language, but if I hear you call any of the men in the yard Amigos like you have I belive after that nasty little email you sent me I will be correcting you and I can do it in a number of languages of which none I will be sharing with you any more."
With that I got my stuff and I left. I don't get it - pants ONLY have 2 legs and they put theirs on JUST like I do mine. What in the world makes anyone think they can run around pointing out YOUR mistakes all the time and being so danged serious? Ugh. Oh and the kicker? Just then a customer with a rather unusual name called. He had called a year ago and I pronounced his name OL i FANT. I was corrected in public then and told it was OL EE FANT. Okay so I wrote it phonetically on the folder. No biggie. When I called the salesman that corrected me to the phone and told him OL EE FANT was on the phone he AGAIN corrected me and said "No no no....OL i FANT." I was so confused I got the folder from LAST year and there in RED ink so I would not MESS IT UP - was my phonetics. OL EE FANT like I'd been told. SO I corrected him, on MY correction and he said "Well I messed up." So I said "Then you owe me an apology. Actually Two. Then you need to get over YOURSELF too."
DANG.
If you made it this far - thanks.....just needed to get THAT out.
They also have the most annoying habit of constantly correcting everyone. Occasionally I forget a comma, and will get my paper back with a huge red comma on it. Occasionally I will mispronounce an odd name and I will be told in front of everyone how to pronounce it. Fine, but I don't ever do the same to them. As a matter of fact I spell a phonetic sounding name out above a name when it's difficult for them. Not any more. Until Friday I have refused to do a battle of wits with an unarmed person.
Am I guilty of typos? Rarely at work. Am I guilty of misplacing a comma, semicolon or other punctuation? You bet I am. Do I do that when it goes out of the office to a customer, client or account? It could happen. So when I send inter-office memos trying to keep costs down and productivity up; could there be some short cuts? Sure.
Since I am not afforded the luxuries of the men, I asked one of them to scan a document and email it to me. He did, and I sent an email saying Mucho's Gracias Amigo. Just a lighthearted atmosphere or me not being serious because our office is supposedly very informal. I received an email back almost immediately in a coarse font stating "I do not speak Mexican, if you wish to convey a thanks please do so in an English based language."
So I sent him an email reply back that said in Latin -
I'm sorry you only speak one language.
Then every single little mistake for the rest of the day I took out my hot pink pen and circled every tiny little error and sent it back. I circled run on sentences. I circled punctuation that was incorrect. I circled where paragraphs were supposed to start but did not. I didn't write phonetic names above the correct names of customer and when they were slaughtered verbally I stood at their door ways and corrected them in front of the customers who were on the phone.
When they misfiled something I took it out and refiled it infront of them and then put up a note asking them to just place the pulled files on top, stating I would file. One man said "I know my alphabet." So I said "Okay which comes first? Mc before Master or M?" He stood there and I said A,B,C is not filing."
Later in the day they were both sitting at the conference table and I came in and handed them both a pile of corrected papers, and they asked if I was in a bad mood. I said "No, why would you ask that?" and they said "Because you've been drawing your little pink circles on our stuff all day and jumping in on our phone conversations with customers correcting names and stuff." I took a seat and said "When you constantly correct me and how I say names are you in a bad mood? When you come to me with things that have your LITTLE red marks all over them and make a huge deal about it in front of everyone are you in a bad mood or are you trying to prove a point? What would the point be? That you are smarter or a smarta$$ or that you can put me down or that you just get your jollies out of correcting someone or wasting my time and yours for little mistakes, because here is one day worth of each of your mistakes and wow I have to tell you both if this is going to continue I can really get technical. I just do not see the need to constantly correct and belittle people. It's an error - move on. It's a misunderstanding. Move on. Unless it's going to cost us money? Stop being so serious and MOVE ON. GET OVER yourselves already. Sheez."
With that I got up, took all the papers and said "I really AM sorry that you don't speak more than one language, but if I hear you call any of the men in the yard Amigos like you have I belive after that nasty little email you sent me I will be correcting you and I can do it in a number of languages of which none I will be sharing with you any more."
With that I got my stuff and I left. I don't get it - pants ONLY have 2 legs and they put theirs on JUST like I do mine. What in the world makes anyone think they can run around pointing out YOUR mistakes all the time and being so danged serious? Ugh. Oh and the kicker? Just then a customer with a rather unusual name called. He had called a year ago and I pronounced his name OL i FANT. I was corrected in public then and told it was OL EE FANT. Okay so I wrote it phonetically on the folder. No biggie. When I called the salesman that corrected me to the phone and told him OL EE FANT was on the phone he AGAIN corrected me and said "No no no....OL i FANT." I was so confused I got the folder from LAST year and there in RED ink so I would not MESS IT UP - was my phonetics. OL EE FANT like I'd been told. SO I corrected him, on MY correction and he said "Well I messed up." So I said "Then you owe me an apology. Actually Two. Then you need to get over YOURSELF too."
DANG.
If you made it this far - thanks.....just needed to get THAT out.