Never underestimate the power of e-mail
HAVE you ever written an e-mail about someone and sent it to the same person when your intention was to send it to somebody else?
Have you written an angry e-mail and decided that it would be better not to send it, and then accidentally press the “Send” button anyway?
Are you still naive enough to think that anything inappropriate you send out will not come back to haunt you one of these days?
Goldman Sach’s bond trader Fabrice Tourre, who calls himself Fabulous Fab, has learnt the hard way that there are no secrets when it comes to e-mail.
His most famous e-mail that is now broadcast to the whole world went like this: “More and more leverage in the system. The whole building is about to collapse anytime now … Only potential survivor, the Fabulous Fab … standing in the middle of all these complex, highly leveraged exotic trades he created without necessarily understanding all of the implications of those monstrosities!!!”
And if that is not enough, even his amorous e-mail exchange with “a gorgeous and super-smart French girl” is now a matter of public record.
For Tourre and other Goldman Sachs executives questioned by the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations last week, their e-mail trail going back to 2007 has provided much of the ammunition for the senators to grill them with.
Whether e-mail or SMS, the reality is that anything we put in writing is potentially a disaster waiting to happen.
If you don’t believe me, you should buy the book Great Email Disasters by Chas Newkey-Burden.
His book, published in 2007, is still selling well.
Asked by a Reuters reporter about Tourre’s e-mail indiscretions, he said, “People have always been indiscreet. We just have more power to mess up at our finger tips.”
According to the author, e-mail is convenient but highly dangerous. With an ill-considered click of the mouse, you can humiliate yourself in front of millions, lose your job or even end up in court.
Let’s get real. All of us commonly use office e-mail for private purposes. Although we are advised to keep our office and private e-mail separate, they often gel into one.
When we give out our name cards, our friends and contacts will often use our office e-mail to communicate with us, even on non-official matters.
Sometimes, we get unsolicited e-mail that may be deemed highly inappropriate from our company’s point of view but they still get through despite the various filters the IT department has put in.
I guess some will say this is an occupational hazard and part of the harsh reality of life in such an interconnected world. But we should never underestimate the power of the e-mail, and its potential of making us from a nobody to an instant celebrity.
Deputy executive editor Soo Ewe Jin was inspired to write this week’s column after watching “My Best Friend’s Wedding” on DVD where the character played by Julia Roberts wrote a fictitious e-mail to wreck her best friend’s wedding. And the Goldman Sachs proceedings too, of course.
Have you written an angry e-mail and decided that it would be better not to send it, and then accidentally press the “Send” button anyway?
Are you still naive enough to think that anything inappropriate you send out will not come back to haunt you one of these days?
Goldman Sach’s bond trader Fabrice Tourre, who calls himself Fabulous Fab, has learnt the hard way that there are no secrets when it comes to e-mail.
His most famous e-mail that is now broadcast to the whole world went like this: “More and more leverage in the system. The whole building is about to collapse anytime now … Only potential survivor, the Fabulous Fab … standing in the middle of all these complex, highly leveraged exotic trades he created without necessarily understanding all of the implications of those monstrosities!!!”
And if that is not enough, even his amorous e-mail exchange with “a gorgeous and super-smart French girl” is now a matter of public record.
For Tourre and other Goldman Sachs executives questioned by the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations last week, their e-mail trail going back to 2007 has provided much of the ammunition for the senators to grill them with.
Whether e-mail or SMS, the reality is that anything we put in writing is potentially a disaster waiting to happen.
If you don’t believe me, you should buy the book Great Email Disasters by Chas Newkey-Burden.
His book, published in 2007, is still selling well.
Asked by a Reuters reporter about Tourre’s e-mail indiscretions, he said, “People have always been indiscreet. We just have more power to mess up at our finger tips.”
According to the author, e-mail is convenient but highly dangerous. With an ill-considered click of the mouse, you can humiliate yourself in front of millions, lose your job or even end up in court.
Let’s get real. All of us commonly use office e-mail for private purposes. Although we are advised to keep our office and private e-mail separate, they often gel into one.
When we give out our name cards, our friends and contacts will often use our office e-mail to communicate with us, even on non-official matters.
Sometimes, we get unsolicited e-mail that may be deemed highly inappropriate from our company’s point of view but they still get through despite the various filters the IT department has put in.
I guess some will say this is an occupational hazard and part of the harsh reality of life in such an interconnected world. But we should never underestimate the power of the e-mail, and its potential of making us from a nobody to an instant celebrity.
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