Sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself...

The other day I was at the gym and wanted to weigh myself.  I forgot to bring my glasses so was standing as far away as I could to be able to see the numbers.  I yelled out to my friend that I certainly hadn't gained any weight as the scale was not moving.  She started laughing and called out, "Pat, you have to be standing on it for it to work."  I was standing so far back I had forgotten to step back on the scale.  Of course there were other people in the locker room so I said with chagrin, "Now that's a little bit embarrassing."  They all started laughing and said they were definitely laughing with me, not at me. 

Another friend said she asked an IT person to help her with a site she was having difficulty logging into.  He asked her to log off her computer so he could set it up and he would let her know when she could log back on.  After about 45 minutes she still had not heard from him so finally called and asked if she could log on again as she was busy and had to get some things done.  Much to his embarrassment he said that without thinking he had sent her an e-mail a few minutes after they had spoken to let her know she could log back on."  Oops!

Revolving door trouble

I hate revolving doors and today I have a good reason. 

They do have a purpose I suppose.  Up here in Canada when it is really cold, they keep the cold out because you don't have to open and close the door all the time. Maybe I'm a little paranoid about it, but I usually avoid them.  Except today... 

When I went to go outside at noon, there were signs on the doors that said in big black letters "Use Revolving Doors" so what else could I do?  When I pushed on the door I felt a jerk from behind and the next thing I know there was a woman beside me and we were in the same space.  I don't think that's how it's supposed to work. 

We just looked at each other and she knew she had done something wrong, but what could we do about it, we were both stuck in there.  Unless you've ever been stuck in a revolving door with a complete stranger, you have no idea how hard it is to get out and how awkward it is because you don't know the person.  And did I mention she didn't speak English. We had to take baby steps in unison until we were finally free... 

It seemed like we were in there for minutes, but it was probably only seconds.  We did have a good laugh about it when we got out and I'm sure the people who saw us in there enjoyed watching too.  Sheesh!

The Hazards of E-mail...

Since e-mail and social networking have come on the scene, it is a new way for us to make blunders and bloopers. Unfortunately, because it is in writing it can turn into a pretty sticky situation and it sure makes it harder to take your words back. People have been fired over e-mails sent to the wrong person, gotten more attention than they wanted because of them and some are just plain annoyed receiving them.

As serious as it can be, there can be a humorous side. I have seen e-mails where a typo has changed the whole meaning of the message. One e-mail I recently received used the word pubic instead of public. Without going into much detail, I’m sure you can see how embarassing that one might have been and since it was sent to a large distribution list...Well, you see what I mean.

In another e-mail, the person introduced themself as "...one of your fellow “sinners”" from a recent awards ceremony where they were both "winners."

E-mail is useful. I mean what would we do without it now that we have experienced instant messaging?  It is also the number one complaint I hear from co-workers -- too much e-mail!  E-mail can be annoying at times, but because of the speed we send them (sometimes without much thought or proofreading) they are also a good source of blunders and bloopers. 

HELL NO• I was writing an e-mail to a board member, but instead of writing “Hello Mr. Smith” I wrote “Hell Mr. Smith.”

RECALL FAILED
• My boss came rushing out of his office. “Quick, I need to know right away how to recall a message.” He was a lawyer and had just sent some legal advice meant for our client to the opposing counsel. Oops!

NEVER SAY NEVER
• I was reading through e-mails that were going to be used as evidence in a court case. In one e-mail the woman had e-mailed her boss (who she was having an affair with) and wrote “Thank goodness nobody will ever read these e-mails.”

Moral of the story.  Don't press SEND and regret it...think, proof and if you still really want to send it...then press SEND.

Bloopers

I have made so many bloopers in my life, it is hard to keep track of them all.  I wrote an article about some of them on my blog Laughing All the Way to Work: A Survival Blog for Today's Administrative Assistant called Office Confidential. Check it out and come back here and let me know what you think.

Since my other blog is a much more serious blog where I try to be professional most of the time, I decided for the times that I didn't feel like it, I would come over here and tell stories and hopefully share stories that people send me about what happened to them.

How about you?  Has anything ever happened that was embarrassing at the time, but now that you think about it was pretty darn funny.  I think the funniest stories are from real life.  For instance, I had only been working in my new job for a few weeks and was sitting at the front desk to relieve the receptionist.   My boss walked by and asked me what the password was on a site he needed to log into. The password was LRGPassword, but I told him to remember it was case sensitive and started to spell it out for him -- "Capital LRGP and then..." but stopped when I realized what the rest of it spelled. He looked at me with a knowing smile and said, “Yes, Patricia, continue..."

If you want to share, e-mail me at patriciaannrobb@gmail.com and we can laugh together.