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Shark Tank: Sometimes the rumor mill just isn't fast enough
17 comments- IT TOPICS:Business Intelligence, Careers, Internet, Personal Technology
Pilot fish arrives back at the office after lunch, and a co-worker pulls him aside to ask if he's heard about the latest lost soul. "I hadn't," says fish, "and he was happy to fill me in: Help Desk Harry was history."
Fish has never had much contact with Harry, but his co-worker appears to know all about him. Seems Harry had a secret desire to walk out on his job without notice -- not to mention having great contempt for the company and holding grudges against several co-workers and managers.
Another quirky factoid dished out by the co-worker: Harry was writing a novel and was supposedly hampered by writer's block, which he attributed to work related fatigue. He had even asked his unemployed girlfriend to go back to work as an exotic dancer so he could quit sooner and finish the novel.
"I laughed and asked my co-worker what would prompt him to believe all this hogwash," fish says. "He said this and much more was documented in a long e-mail chain between Harry and the girlfriend.
"I despise e-mail Nazis in general. There are legitimate cases where snooping might be justified, but the contents of personal e-mail are, in my mind, normally untouchable. A bit outraged, I marched to my superior to complain."
Boss hears fish out. Then he merely smiles and suggests that fish go read his e-mail.
That's not reassuring to fish. It just means there will be some official legal-department-approved corporate-speak explanation waiting in his in-box -- right?
Instead, fish logs on and finds two e-mails from Harry.
"The second was titled 'Please ignore and delete my previous e-mail,'" says fish.
"The first e-mail could best be described as not containing the joke that Harry thought he was forwarding to everyone on the floor.
"But gosh was it entertaining and informative, if not X-rated and career-ending.
"I had no choice but to withdraw my grievances -- with thunderous laughter."
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