Cover Your Ass

When I went from Radio to the gaming industry in 2005, one thing that struck me as funny was the office mentality that everything had to be covered in email. Even if the person you were conversing with was in the next office (or cubical), you should send an email.

"That's ridiculous", I said. "They're right next to me."

"Cover your ass", my boss said.

And boy, was she ever right.

So on Friday, I get a really sanctimonious email from someone in the office that I wouldn't expect this kind of treatment out of. He (and another person copied on the email) pretty much blast me for bad communication (that's the buzz phrase in our office when someone wants to put you down second only to "you don't prepare far enough in advance"), wasting company time and money.

Wow. This pissed me off, just a bit. In fact, it pretty much ruined my entire f'ing weekend (aside from the Anthrax). I wrote several emails but didn't send any of them. Probably a REALLY good thing I didn't.

Then I got to thinking. I started searching my old emails and lo and behold, I find an email from April 2007 that not only was this person copied on but the specific email called them out BY NAME asking them for their input and to make sure they were prepared for the procedures that were coming.

So the email I finally sent, included a copy of that email and a polite message stating that I didn't see how I was wasting time and money.

An hour later, I get an email asking if I considered the first email an attack. No, do you think? They went back and re-read it and said that they could see why I might think it was, even though it wasn't. They did finally apologize profusely when I saw them at lunch.

Cover your ass, indeed.