The Golden Rule with emails, IM and blogs: do not send it out if it may come back and bite you. Simple enough isn’t it? If you are pissed off, count to 10, take a deep breath and pull that finger away from that mouse. Looks like two women who worked for the same Sydney law firm didn’t do that and got sacked for it.
Allens Arthur Robinson has been rocked by the cyber brawl, which began over a missing ham sandwich and ended with one woman taunting the other for being unable to hold on to a boyfriend.
The email exchange was then forwarded to colleagues at Allens who copied it to rival firms.
Soon it was sweeping Sydney’s offices, drawing comments from employees of Westpac, Deloitte, Macquarie Bank and JP Morgan.
One city high-flyer remarked: “This is magic. You can’t script this sort of stuff.”
More at: Staff sacked after email fight | Cyber Brawl | Breaking News 24/7 - NEWS.com.au (08-09-2005), and a juicier report is available at The Age (Melbourne - yeah it made its way there too!)
UPDATE 9th Sept 2005 9:49am
The story has now gone global:
Oz email catfight secretaries walk plank | The Register
On ham sandwiches and professionalism | News.blog | CNET News.com
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19 Responses to “Catfight!”
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Sep 08 2005 / 9:40 am
heehee. *meow*.
This is why most people in my company does not have email or access to the internet
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Sep 08 2005 / 9:45 am
heheh….meow indeed!
No email?! *gasp* You mean they have to actually pick up the phone? Or worse, face-to-face?
But you’re right - email is just too much of a reflex action and it can spread way faster than anything else. And it’s real proof of what you said. -
Sep 08 2005 / 11:31 am
The thing is…
They are not allowed to speak to anyone.Just sit there,stare at computer and work…and take allocated breaks..
Heehee.Just guess what kinda work I do.But the priviledged few that gets the email-internet uses it as a frivilous past time..like me now!
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Sep 08 2005 / 11:37 am
muahahahaha…..you are EVIL.
So you must be a real privileged person then. Damn, how high up are you anyway?
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Sep 08 2005 / 11:46 am
hee hee
I reckon that if they were dumb enough to click reply all or to forward their spat to someone else… they deserved to be sacked. :p
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Sep 08 2005 / 11:59 am
starry: yeah and they work in a *law* firm! Don’t they understand the power of words?
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Sep 08 2005 / 1:32 pm
Nolah, Im not actually that high..hehe.
Can’t really comment more,because I just found out that there had been people at work who’s been reading my blog, after people started congratulating me on the ring.
I actually put in recommendations that people should NOT have access to emails/internet.Because I know what will it be used for..first hand experience ok. Heh
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Sep 08 2005 / 2:06 pm
eek@honeypot. Yep, I can’t imagine how mortified I’d be if someone at work read my blog (not that I’m working…yet!)
Which is why I *try* to be a little less emotionally unhinged when I blog nowadays. But of course, I have momentary lapses. heh.
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Sep 08 2005 / 2:10 pm
honeypot: wahah….true true. Takes one to know one.
But how did they find out about your blog??? -
Sep 08 2005 / 2:24 pm
At my brother’s office they had a policy which decreed that you could only email someone else in the office if they had given their permission for you to do so. I don’t know how well that worked, or if the policy is still in place. But with these two secretaries… haven’t they heard of using “Reply” instead instead of “Reply to all”? That’s where the trouble really started, I reckon.
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Sep 08 2005 / 2:31 pm
Tfp: I guess it’s not much fun when your catfight is not witnessed by other people..as the objective of the whole excercise is one upmanship.
My blog?Again, stupid friendster.I had two collegues on my list..and so it spread.
Starry: Yep, this is why I have been secretive about what I actually do and where do I work.
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Sep 08 2005 / 2:35 pm
tfp/honeypot: re: “reply all” - so true. Was silly to involve everyone else in their little bitchfest.
tfp: so to email a colleague, you had to call them and ask “Can I email you?”
Wow tedious for sure.honeypot: friendster –> blog exposed? Chialat. That sucks. But then what can you do …. hahha, another sign for you to leave Friendster blogs.
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Sep 08 2005 / 2:57 pm
If you were going to ask your colleague’s permission to email them… wouldn’t it be easier to ask them whatever it was you were gonna ask them while you were at it?
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Sep 08 2005 / 3:23 pm
mooiness: yep, you had to ring them or pop into their office/cubicle. Stupid really!
starryluvly: yes, it would make sense wouldn’t it?
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Sep 09 2005 / 4:47 am
Hahaha! that was so hilarious! it might well have been the monotony of work rather than vindicity that drove them to quarrel i reckon.
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Sep 09 2005 / 7:54 am
the v.u: yeah but dude, they work in a *law* firm … they more than anyone else should know the power of words!
And why do a “reply all”???? Monotony of work could only explain a small part of it. -
Sep 09 2005 / 5:56 pm
the thing that strikes me is how boring ms Nugent’s lunch was. Even my dog eats more interesting food than that.
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Sep 09 2005 / 6:33 pm
intint: that’s like most Skips that I know.
They can eat the same sandwich day in and day out.
[...] Past examples include the Sydney secretaries who argued over a sandwich, the London banker who boasted about his sex life in Korea to his colleagues, and of course Claire Swire who though that “cum was yum”. [...]