Chirky

When I terminated my employment with The Sweatshop over a year ago, I gave the assistant administrator of the firm my new address and asked her to update my 401k plan with that information. I came back two months later to do some contract work, and while I was there I gave her my address again, because the change had not yet been made.

Over the course of the last year, I have emailed her two to three additional times, asking her to update my mailing address because I kept receiving notices from Fidelity telling me that the US Postal Service noted a recent change in my address, and that I should contact The Sweatshop to have this information corrected.

Today, I decided to bypass the middleman and contact Fidelity directly to facilitate the change. Unfortunately, they could not help. Apparently, ONLY The Sweatshop could change this information. I asked who the contact was for the account, and was pleasantly surprised to find out it was a firm partner, NOT the assistant administrator. I sent him this email, which has been changed only a little, as you might suppose:

From: jes
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2005 2:23 PM
To: Firm Partner
Cc: Firm Administrator; Assistant Administrator, whom we'll call "Mary"
Subject: Sweatshop's 401k Plan

Thank you for your help,
Jes
very important title
contact information

Approximately 14 seconds after I hit the "Send" button, my phone rang. It was Mary. She called for a friendly chit-chat, just to let me know how much she hates me and how she wishes that my skin would rot off of my decaying bones. By the time I hung up, my blood had risen to a temperature comparable to that of the sun in all its burning hotness.

A few seconds later, I received an email. From Mary. Apparently, she hit "reply to all" and forgot that I originally wrote the first email.

From: "Mary"
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2005 2:26 PM
To: jes, Firm Partner
Cc: Firm Administrator
Subject: Re: Sweatshop's 401k Plan

Is she psycho?
When do I ignore people?

Hmmm.

And that made me so mad! MAD!

Mary, we have a problem here. A) You were ignorant enough to include me on this email. And B) Yes, I've worked with you before, and you DO ignore people.

As the ever-so-polite person that I am, I decided to respond only to Mary, to save her embarrassment. Then "the devil made me do it" and at the last minute I included both her superiors (the Firm Administrator and the Firm Partner) on the email, just for spite:

From: jes
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2005 2:30 PM
To: Firm Partner
Cc: Firm Administrator; Mary
Subject: Re: Sweatshop's 401k Plan

Thanks,
Jessica

I heard nothing from her after this email. I like to imagine that she sunk deep into her chair and covered her face with her hands when she realized that I got the email meant only for the Firm Partner & Firm Administrator. And then I like to imagine the Firm Administrator storming into her office (Oh, yes, he does. He storms.), angry that she had left my name on the email.

It's like poetic justice for her being so rude to me, when it all could have been avoided a year ago if she had done her job.