I’ve got to watch my funny sometimes
I had an extremely frustrated employee today that did the completely politically incorrect threat of gun violence in the workplace and instead of reprimanding him as I should have I made with the funny. I sent him an email back that was meant to diffuse his frustration with humor, which it did, but then he passed it around the office in a “look what funny-tom wrote” kind of way. His email was something that if I were dumb enough to write and send I certainly wouldn’t include in a later forward, to the people who were frustrating me. This would be so much easier if I could just copy and paste the email but I really need this job so I’m only going to recreate my response:
Please let me know because I’d like to help you prioritize your targets and excuse myself for lunch so I can go home and spruce up for the television cameras.
Tom
I knew something was up when I walked out into the main room later in the afternoon and people were talking to me about something that I apparently knew about already but I was completely lost. People kept saying “you are funny” and “that was funny” and all I kept thinking was how funny it was that I had no idea what they were talking about. Then I got the “I didn’t appreciate that.” I figured it was time to find out what was going on.
I talked to the unappreciative (I’m not really sure if that’s the correct word but I don’t have time to puzzle this out right now) person and she let me know that in light of the recent and relatively close to home NIU shootings that jokes like those were not funny. I then had to hear about her neighbors kids best friends cousin who walked past that building just days before the tragedy while nodding in agreement.
Now that I knew what was going on it was time for some damage control. I had the dumbshit who sent the original message tell his even dumbershit boss (me) who exactly he copied on that email. Then I had to drag my stupid ass all around the building talking to people and making sure that they understood that I was trying to calm the first idiot down but I in no way condone workplace shootings and no they weren’t who I was talking about when I suggested prioritizing targets.
OK, some of them were but no need to add insult to injury at tat point.
That stupid email line cost me about an hour and a half of my life that I’ll never get back and the true beauty is that there is nothing I could do if they wanted to send the thing all over the place. This was one of those days where I just wanted to take a nap until everything went back to normal.
That WAS funny, but I can understand your discomfort with having it forwarded. My post today shows someone else who replied to an email and who wishes she’d chosen her words more carefully too.
Trying to protect stupid people who make comments that, in other jobs, would get them fired immediately is always a mistake. They never appreciate it, and usually take you down with them.
Also, the rule of humanity is that people LOVE any excuse to be offended. When faced with a situation where they ask themselves, “Hmmm, I COULD have a sense of humor. Or, I could draw attention to myself and be offended by this!” there are always those who will choose the latter. They get to be holier-than-thou and sanctimonious. Their esteem shoots up, because they are the superior creature for being more sensitive to the feelings of others than the rest of us. You probably made that girl’s day by letting her be offended by something and being able to “put you in your inferior place” about it.
Total bummer. That lady whose neighbor’s best friend’s cousin’s daughter walked by the shooting is totally annoying. You’ll always get people like that. In a way, they make life funnier though because they’re so humorless.
If I just a tad less impulse control I would have a $50 gift card from ‘the neighborhood eatery’ in my pocket because of my penicillin allergy.