Stupid rules
I am, undeniably, a rule-follower. I don't know if it's the comfort of having structure and order or plain old Catholic guilt, but there you have it. The Smelmooo always mocks me for refusing to bring snacks into the move theater -- even my mother will do so without guilt! -- although I'm starting to waffle on that one. When I took my nieces to see Disney on Ice -- which should be a whole nother entry at some point -- I totally set a horrible, hypocritical example for them and sneaked in five different kinds of snacks in the bottom of my purse, despite giant signs everywhere warning us that outside food and beverages were prohibited. But no way was I paying 10 bucks for a teensy bag of popcorn, on top of the 20-dollars-apiece programs.
Anyway, though, despite this weird recent tendency toward rule-breaking (which I expect will be short-lived), the rules that have consistently done me wrong are those freakin' Microsoft Outlook rules that supposedly will dump all of my emails from one address into my junk mail folder without passing through my In Box, or automatically make an email from my boss pop up in green font so it sticks out. These never work for me, somehow.
In my (thankfully former) job as the main media contact for my organization, I ended up being the de facto go-to person for all of the crazies, press credentials or not. I tried to get all emails from the particularly persistent crazies dumped automatically into my "Nuts" folder, and I ended up with totally innocuous things from other people being junked or dumped into Nuts, and all the messages from the crazies coming straight through to my In Box. So I abandoned that whole notion and swore off the rules.
And this week, Bill Gates -- or whoever -- came back to bite me in the ass. I'm still not using the rules, but one of my co-workers somehow managed to set up a rule that automatically forwards every email I send him to two of my external consultants. I think he didn't do it on purpose, but still: I feel horribly exposed, and now I am living in absolute fear of sending any emails to anyone. You could totally sink someone by using this little trick. But you shouldn't, because I'm pretty sure it's against the rules.
Anyway, though, despite this weird recent tendency toward rule-breaking (which I expect will be short-lived), the rules that have consistently done me wrong are those freakin' Microsoft Outlook rules that supposedly will dump all of my emails from one address into my junk mail folder without passing through my In Box, or automatically make an email from my boss pop up in green font so it sticks out. These never work for me, somehow.
In my (thankfully former) job as the main media contact for my organization, I ended up being the de facto go-to person for all of the crazies, press credentials or not. I tried to get all emails from the particularly persistent crazies dumped automatically into my "Nuts" folder, and I ended up with totally innocuous things from other people being junked or dumped into Nuts, and all the messages from the crazies coming straight through to my In Box. So I abandoned that whole notion and swore off the rules.
And this week, Bill Gates -- or whoever -- came back to bite me in the ass. I'm still not using the rules, but one of my co-workers somehow managed to set up a rule that automatically forwards every email I send him to two of my external consultants. I think he didn't do it on purpose, but still: I feel horribly exposed, and now I am living in absolute fear of sending any emails to anyone. You could totally sink someone by using this little trick. But you shouldn't, because I'm pretty sure it's against the rules.
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