Did you ever hit the send button for email and do an “oh s**t”? Talk about embarrassing. It’s bad enough if you send it to the wrong person internally. Sending it to someone outside your organization can be more than embarrassing. It could cost you money, reputation and a law suit.
One of the big culprits is the type-ahead feature of email programs that help you fill in email addresses as you type. This makes it easy to address an email to frequent recipients. You can type the first few letters of a name or address and the program shows you a list of choices. This works with Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes, Gmail, Yahoo mail, Microsoft Hotmail, you name it.
Some email programs have a callback feature to retrieve a sent email before it is read. I call this the Oops feature, but it rarely works. Once you hit the Send button, you are committed.
The worst situation is when you send an attachment to the wrong person. The news is full of leaked files and my guess is that type-ahead is one of the culprits. Sending your new product design or customer list to Jane your competitor rather than Jane your boss can wreak havoc – legal, financial, etc.
Next time, make sure you look at the To: line before you hit the send button. It could prevent a lot of swearing and pain.
Photo credit Truth Went Trendy
