Pop Shield

It’s Friday afternoon.  I receive an internal corporation email entitled ‘Table of Love’ from somebody called Julia.  It reads.

“Few bits of food on the table of love from Markson’s Family Butchers in Belper. Sausages, Faggots and Black Pudding.”

Well, that’s very nice.  I wonder where these delightful food stuffs are. I double-click on the sender’s name to see who Julia is.  She is a broadcast assistant in Derby.  Hmm, ok.  I reckon she probably didn’t mean to send this email to me.  I look at the recipient address to see that it reads “Radio – All Staff”.  Seeing as there’s a good 20,000 people working for the corporation, I’m guessing this email has gone to a few other inboxes as well as mine.

The replies-to-all start rolling in thick and fast.

From Stephen, a producer in London: Subject: Table Of Love. “Fabulous – I hope there’s enough to go round.”

From Nigel, a supervisor in Bristol: Subject: Table Of Love. “And to satisfy Bristol as well….?”

From Sarah, a coordinator in Salford: Subject: Table Of Love. “And Salford :-). “

From Sadiq, an assistant in Birmingham: Subject: Table Of Love. Hi. I don’t understand why this is a Radio-All Staff email? However, are these sausages Halal? Please do not reply.

Then an email arrives from our leader.  It has a red exclamation mark on it.  It must be very important.  I read it. Subject:  All Radio Email. “On no account should you respond to the email that has recently been sent to ‘Radio – All Staff’ by a lady named Julia. It has clearly been sent in error and all replies go to all staff right across Radio. This is potentially hurtful for the person who has made the error and it doesn’t reflect well on anybody who makes the situation worse.”

Right, that’s put the barbecue out. Back to work everyone.