Mistakes in workplace emails are common, but how people handle them can say everything.

When one project manager butchered her name and then overreacted to a playful correction, things escalated hilariously fast.

Read on for the full story!

Another misspelled name petty revenge story

I have an Irish name, not a terribly difficult one to spell, but I’ve had my fair share of alternate versions.

At work, there was a group email working its way around for a new project going live with multiple managers, designers, PMs, etc.

But a project manager kept misspelling her first name.

I’d emailed out a technical point and the PM (Ian — actual name) replied back with:

“PO, I would like to… blah, blah, blah…”

(PO, not OP — he did actually transpose two letters in my name.)

So she decided to poke some fun back at him.

I replied back:

“Iain, thank you for your… blah, blah, blah”

(as a tongue-in-cheek joke).

But he did not take the joke well.

He just exploded in his reply.

He copied in the world: my boss, his boss, my boss’s boss.

The words “unprofessional,” “disrespectful,” and “inattentive” were liberally strewn all over.

A very forceful demand for an apology was included.

Unfazed, she fired back.

My reply in its entirety:

“You started it.”

Soon she received a call from his boss.

About two minutes later, his boss was on the phone to me desperately trying not to giggle-snort, and asking that I don’t do that again, but he ENTIRELY understood why.

Best part?

She ended up getting the apology she was looking for.

He replied back PRIVATELY, just to me, apologizing for his own mistake; so of course I replied to him copying in everyone he previously had, graciously accepting his apology.

Looks like his overreaction backfired spectacularly!

What did Reddit think?

Apparently this issue is widespread.

It’s sad when your coworkers don’t even bother to learn your actual name.

Pronunciation always trips people up.

He tried to make her look unprofessional, but wound up embarrassing himself instead!

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.