Embarrassing moments - #47

(En español más abajo) 

 

Embarrassing moments

 

I had to work in Detroit a couple of weeks ago. We were in the middle of an important upgrade, and the guys in charge were putting on a lot of hours, so I offered to go and take the night shifts so they could get some well deserved rest. I drove down and got there at 7PM on a Sunday; my first shift ended at around 10AM the following day.

Due to the importance and size of the project, we had very frequent conference calls with upper management, even through the night. We also left a chat session opened; I posted regular updates,  so people could drop in and see how everything was going. At around 6:00 AM we had the last conference before the day 'officially' started. Since I had been the only one in the room for the past five hours or so, I turned on the speakerphone so I could continue to work while I was listening to what was being said.

That conference call was very poorly attended, obviously because of the time and the fact that most people hadn't had any decent sleep in days; only three people were connected: a regional manager, his boss... and I.

We were discussing the project when somebody who was obviously a hospital employee entered the room. What to do? I couldn't say anything or pick up the phone in front of her, that would be rude. I had to warn them, though, so I decided to send them a message using our internal I'm system.

In the rush, and also due to the fact I was leaning forward in an uncomfortable position, I made a typo. It was an epic one. The message was simple: "X just walked in the room". Only that I put an 'n' instead of the 'l'. I don't have to tell you where, there is only one 'l' in that sentence. I bet you now know what I typed, and you know what it means even if you don't live in England...

I turned red like a tomato, and the two gentlemen on the phone stopped talking immediately. After a five second pause, and while I was entering the right message, they started to laugh. They gave me a hard time after this lady left and I was alone again.

- What the hell are you guys doing in there??!!

Too good I found two managers with a sense of humour!

 

 

Tengan paciencia, ya viene la versión en español…

 

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