Missing In Attachment

Well my final working week in Accenture is now over. I am sure it won’t surprise anyone to hear that it was far from uneventful even before the eruption of a volcano in Iceland!

I sent out my departure mails on Tuesday. Unfortunately a severe case of Outlook Sausage Fingers meant that I sent them out in the wrong order, and that I even sent out the main email without the necessary attachment. It’s the sort of thing that I never do….what a cock up at the final hurdle – I’d been writing those emails for 10 years only for them to be ruined by a sticky “alt” key. The whole event gnawed away at me for a whole hour and a half, and it prevented me from concentrating in a rather important planning meeting. What a cock up, grrrrrrrr.

However on my return to my desk I was taught a useful lesson and life was put back into perspective. I had over 100 replies to my “cocked up emails”, and I was bowled over by the kindness and humour of peoples’ responses. I also looked at somebody else’s inbox and I even saw that the exchange server had delivered them in the “wrong” order (which was of course the order I had initially intended). It seemed like I’ve really had an impact on certain people over the last 10 years – I had never really appreciated that – I should have resigned years ago! Whereas many of the responses really touched me, 3 in particular made me laugh out loud; “sorry to see you go but there is life outside the asylum”; “remember, a bad with a horse is beats a good day with a client”, and the message on MSN the next day from a friend who asked whether or not I had seen the fall in Accenture’s share price as a result of my leaving announcement. You’re a good bunch all in all. I just hope the next lot are up to the mark!