There are some pretty ridiculous stories in the news today. (Insert obvious joke about how Obama's healthcare plan is the most ridiculous of them all) But today, I read a story that gave me a particular disdain for people who lack common human decency.
We live in an age of political correctness... of walking on eggshells so as not to offend any particular group who might take any particular offense to any particular thing that anyone might have said without knowing that any particular individual or group finds it particularly offensive. It's exhausting. And I understand that writing business emails can often be a tricky business, because there is a definite etiquette to follow. I also understand that some people don't like to be addressed by nicknames.
That being said... a woman named Elizabeth Becton, one of those people who you'd be ill-advised to refer to by a nickname, recently took it a step further and crossed the line from correcting someone's improper email etiquette right into a blatant and offensive and unrelenting middle-school-drama-style attack on an unexpecting and misinformed executive assistant.
You may have read this story already, but here is an article that will walk you through the email exchange between Elizabeth Becton and her unfortunate victim who mistakenly called her "Liz" in a simple business email.
Upon a basic internet investigation, I was unable to find any evidence of Elizabeth Becton being corrected by her employer for her behavior which clearly crossed the line, or of her being let go from her position as a result of her actions... nor have I found any evidence of Elizabeth Becton apologizing after this story was picked up by nearly every major media outlet in America. I did, however, find a website that posted other scathing emails from Elizabeth Becton.
At what point, Ms. Becton, do we set aside our convictions about political correctness and proper etiquette and simply treat someone's honest mistake with kindness and forgiveness?
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