Today was an interesting day at work. But the thing is we need to take a step back before we fully analyze it. Yesterday, like any ordinary day, I went to work and worked on stuff. If you recall I work at a Software Company as a programmer or Software Engineer as the fancy title goes. Now in a nutshell: the program is stored on a main server and when we need to work on a certain portion of it we check it out, make our modifications and check it back in. Simple enough task right? This morning we had our regular status meeting where we discussed a fix that I had made the previous day. After listening to a few point of views it was decided that we would take a different approach to the problem than the one we used originally. So I was supposed to undo my previous changes and make some new ones. I was instructed to “Roll Back” my changes. If left up to me, I would have just checked the files out made new modifications and checked them back in. But I specifically heard the words “Roll Back”. I felt a bit funny about it, but hey, orders are orders. What I was thinking is: “what happens to the changes that people had made before this?” Anyways, the system is rather sophisticated so I clicked the “Roll Back” button under the assumption that it would be smart enough to merge in the changes made by other people or at least ask me. Well it did ask me one thing: “The Roll Back function cannot be undone, do you want to continue?“. Like an idiot I clicked yes. So there goes everyones work from 5:05 PM yesterday to 2:02 PM today. Luckily, the file we were talking about (although it has frequent changes) the changes can usually be re applied in under 20 minutes. So I had to send a department wide email alerting people that they need to redo a couple things and of course, apologize for my incompetence. This is where the trouble starts. Now we all should know by now that I am a horrible speller. This is why I set up Outlook to automatically spell check before it sends an email. Now although I can’t spell, I’m usually in the ballpark of the word, so I usually just accept the first suggestion it gives. Keyword: usually. I suppose today was an unusual day. Below is the email I sent to the entire Development department (which includes the vice president of the company):

The development notes for release x.x.xx.00 were accidentally rolled back to 5:05 PM 2/27/07. If you made any changes after that time you would need to reapply them. Sorry for the incontinence.

Now I can picture you (yes reader, you) in two scenarios right now. Either you’re rolling on the floor laughing right now. Or you’re a lil’ bit like me and not quite sure what to think. “Yeah he spelt inconvenience wrong, but so do a lot of people”. Don’t worry, you’ll get it soon.

After I sent that email I had to step out for about 10 minutes. When I returned to my desk I was greeted by a small mob, which (I now realize) was made up of about 1/2 the Development department. Some were giggling, some were snickering, but all were smiling. I decided to pull and old technique that I usually use in these situations: I turned around as if someone had called my name and I used that fraction of a second to check whether my fly was open. Nope, everything was in order. As I drew closer the laughter got louder. I checked my body to make sure that nothing was terribly wrong and that no one had had time to stick a kick me sign on my back. I found nothing. Hey, at least they weren’t angry. I did after all cost everyone a few extra minutes of work.

I finally sat down at my desk, when someone asked “have you checked the reply to the email you sent out?”. So I figured they’re just making fun because the new guy screwed something up. No harm done. I checked the first reply and I was somewhat confused. It read:

Some depends will help with that!

Ok???? I thought. Then someone said “read your email.” I did. And because I’m not the greatest at english, I was still a bit lost. I was wondering why was everyone making such a huge deal about the misspelled word inconvenience. Is it that boring around here that this is what passes as so funny? This is when I looked up the meaning of the word incontinence.

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