I Can't Quite Recall

Microsoft Outlook has a handy feature that lets you recall an email you have just sent. The only problem is that it doesn't work. Once the email is received into an email inbox it will not be pulled out of it. But that doesn't stop people from trying. There is then a second message sent to everyone stating that the recall failed.

The most memorable recall happened right after a company wide meeting. When I looked in my email inbox, I noticed that a failed recall message was there, and of course I immediately opened the email to see what egregious sin someone had committed that would warrant trying to recall the message.

This particular time it happened to be Toni. She was the president of engineering and this was the first time she had tried to recall a message. Needless to say, my interest was peaked.

The email she had sent was a feedback form for the company wide meeting where the 2 guys in charge of the entire office had spoken and had had technical difficulties which prevented the carefully prepared PowerPoint slides from being presented. Toni's review was negative. The most memorable statement was "He was actually coherent. Never give him PowerPoint again." One of the guys just happened to be who she reported directly to.

What is the lesson to be learned from this?

1. NEVER hit "Reply All"
2. If you accidentally break rule #1, don't try to recall your message or it will only draw more attention to it.