Proof Reading is worth 1000 words
I think we all can agree that spell check is an important funtion in most of our professional lives. BUT, it cannot save you from human error. I mean, there are times when I hit the "send" button and realize I completely misspelled someone's name (it's not that often, but once is enough to scar you for life). Panic sets in as you know the person reading the message is thinking you're totally dumb.
There is this man at work. He is supposed to be helping our team through the transition. He wrote this memo last week in which he failed to 1) Save it on his computer and 2) Check that he had all the names correct. He misspelled one name and completely called a councilmember by an entire different last name!!! Of course the news picked up on the mistake. The article read "Mayor's staff needs to check Rolodex." Oh the horror!!! The guy is actually quoted in the article as saying it's terrible and that a lot of people actually read through the memo. Of course he fails to mention he is the author. Ugh.
The thing that bothers me about this (besides the stupidity of it all), is that this memo came across my desk. I quickly scanned through it to make sure the format was correct (because that's what he was asking me) and I thought nothing of it. I wish I took a few more minutes to read through the entire document. This could have spared my boss some embarrassment. People do lose their jobs over things like this. Hopefully I'm not indicated as one of the people who "read through it," as he said. Definitely a lesson learned!
P.S. I did not spell check this document. :-)
There is this man at work. He is supposed to be helping our team through the transition. He wrote this memo last week in which he failed to 1) Save it on his computer and 2) Check that he had all the names correct. He misspelled one name and completely called a councilmember by an entire different last name!!! Of course the news picked up on the mistake. The article read "Mayor's staff needs to check Rolodex." Oh the horror!!! The guy is actually quoted in the article as saying it's terrible and that a lot of people actually read through the memo. Of course he fails to mention he is the author. Ugh.
The thing that bothers me about this (besides the stupidity of it all), is that this memo came across my desk. I quickly scanned through it to make sure the format was correct (because that's what he was asking me) and I thought nothing of it. I wish I took a few more minutes to read through the entire document. This could have spared my boss some embarrassment. People do lose their jobs over things like this. Hopefully I'm not indicated as one of the people who "read through it," as he said. Definitely a lesson learned!
P.S. I did not spell check this document. :-)
posted by AJ at 6:33 PM
2 Comments:
Oh, how horrible! Don't you just LOVE having a job where any little goof anyone makes can end up mocked in the press? Our paper's reporter who is assigned to the City beat has a blog on the local paper website where he would make a comment like this. I feel your pain!!
Good for people to know.
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