Whoops! Too Late!
I don't know anyone who's used email who hasn't, at one time or another, royally put their foot in their mouth with this wonderful new medium of communication. But today I think I pulled a doozie that's bad, even for me.
I'm not very open about having Tourette Syndrome. I don't share that information with many people. Most of the time I can clamp down on it enough that people describe me as being eccentric or wild or something rather than having a mental disorder. It took me almost two years to open up about it where I work now. At my previous job I only ever told two people, and even that was out of sheer desperation.
Today I was trading email with a friend and as part of an explanation for a reaction they had to something, they let me know they had ADD. Thinking it was just an exchange between the two of us, I replied, saying I had TS, and understood altogether too well. It was when I was reading their reply to that mail that I realized all of this email had been going out to a whole list of people. Whoops!
I'm pissed at myself. I'm usually on top of such things. I read headers. I look at recipient lists. I used to run mail servers, for crying out loud, that was my job! But today I slipped. Oh well. Too late now.
My friend's reaction was what I had hoped it would be. It was information received, but doesn't seem to have changed their views of me. For anyone who's never been in my shoes, please understand this reaction is as rare as gold. I never would've mentioned it if I didn't suspect this was what their reaction would be.
But everyone else on the list? No telling. I can say one thing: It'll be something. And that's the catch: It's always something. People always react. Knowing this always changes things. I've had people drop me like a bad habit (and probably put me in the same category as one). I've had people go all sympathetic and pitying, which isn't at all appropriate, given the severity of my TS (or lack thereof). I've had people turn on me like wolverines, almost as if they were afraid it was contagious and that I was Patient Zero, Source of Contagion. It's not and I'm not, but try convincing anyone of that.
So for good or bad, for better or worse, I've utterly and completely changed my relationship with the people on this list. It wasn't my choice, but it was by my own uncoerced admission. I can only blame myself.
Sometimes I drive myself crazy.
I'm not very open about having Tourette Syndrome. I don't share that information with many people. Most of the time I can clamp down on it enough that people describe me as being eccentric or wild or something rather than having a mental disorder. It took me almost two years to open up about it where I work now. At my previous job I only ever told two people, and even that was out of sheer desperation.
Today I was trading email with a friend and as part of an explanation for a reaction they had to something, they let me know they had ADD. Thinking it was just an exchange between the two of us, I replied, saying I had TS, and understood altogether too well. It was when I was reading their reply to that mail that I realized all of this email had been going out to a whole list of people. Whoops!
I'm pissed at myself. I'm usually on top of such things. I read headers. I look at recipient lists. I used to run mail servers, for crying out loud, that was my job! But today I slipped. Oh well. Too late now.
My friend's reaction was what I had hoped it would be. It was information received, but doesn't seem to have changed their views of me. For anyone who's never been in my shoes, please understand this reaction is as rare as gold. I never would've mentioned it if I didn't suspect this was what their reaction would be.
But everyone else on the list? No telling. I can say one thing: It'll be something. And that's the catch: It's always something. People always react. Knowing this always changes things. I've had people drop me like a bad habit (and probably put me in the same category as one). I've had people go all sympathetic and pitying, which isn't at all appropriate, given the severity of my TS (or lack thereof). I've had people turn on me like wolverines, almost as if they were afraid it was contagious and that I was Patient Zero, Source of Contagion. It's not and I'm not, but try convincing anyone of that.
So for good or bad, for better or worse, I've utterly and completely changed my relationship with the people on this list. It wasn't my choice, but it was by my own uncoerced admission. I can only blame myself.
Sometimes I drive myself crazy.
posted by pencil at 4:43 PM
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