I received an e-mail forward today which highlights the interaction between a client and a customer when things go wrong. Abbey Sherwell who used to work for Entertainment Books up until a week ago accidentally hit ‘reply’ instead of ‘forward’ and the client, Craig Morrissey (a Cafe owner in Geelong, Victoria).

The contents in of the e-mail displays Abbey’s opinion that the client is a ‘complete dick’ and is asking how to deal with him. Shortly after Craig received the e-mail he has forwarded it on to his contacts. From there, they have forwarded it on, and so forth until it has landed in my inbox (Brisbane, Queensland). After forwarding this e-mail on again a co-worker started a search on the web with her name.

Straight away he was able to find her name in the search results and it appears that Abbey has sky rocketed on search results, but hit rock bottom in creating a positive web presence. Not only has these made it on twitter, digg and blogs. Newspapers and the media have posted this on their own sites (and most likely printed it in their paper) across the world. I’ve copied some of the search results are below:

Abbey Sherwell

Abusive email accidentally sent to client goes viral

Leaked Entertainment Books email trail

Account manager sacked after accidentally abusing client by email

Fans defend Geelong worker sacked over email

Geelong women sacked for sending obscene email to client

How not to do business: a lesson by Abbey Sherwell

Do Your Own Search – http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en-us&q=Abbey+Sherwell

If you want to read the e-mail yourself, there are plenty of links above. Two links I didn’t include are the facebook groups which have now been created. The are a ‘Save Abbey Sherwell’ and ‘Don’t Save Abbey Sherwell’, which at time of writing has a 173 members vs 86 members respectfully. These numbers for me represent an example of a basic poll on how people feel about what has happened. How do you feel?

This is a great example of how powerful and viral the web is becoming and it doesn’t look like it is going to slow down. It also means that a creating a positive web presence is becoming an essential thing in our everyday world. Future employers don’t just look at resumes any more, they do a search for you on the net to see what is out there. They want to know who you are and what you do.

For me reading this article made me feel a bit sorry for Abbey, but as a gentle reminder that keeping professional practice in the workplace (both internally and externally) is essential as you never know what could happen. If you have other examples or can share your own story be sure to leave a comment.

How would Abbey Sherwell combat this?

Has it made you think differently how you act in the workplace?

Do you think what has happened is fair?

Have you been forwarded the e-mail yourself already?