Careful what you write
Before you send that angry e-mail, remember it might end up on the news.
Elizabeth Becton went off on a multiple-e-mail rant after an aide at McBee Strategic referred to her by three letters that really got under her skin: “L-I-Z.”
What? You’ve never heard of Elizabeth Becton? Well neither had anyone else until her lengthy, written, documented rant landed her in the spotlight. When will these political aides learn to be careful about their e-mails?
The Elizabeth Becton Story
OK, so the Elizabeth Becton story, in and of itself, is truly not that interesting. Elizabeth Becton is the scheduling secretary to Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash. An aide at McBee e-mailed her trying to set up a meeting. He wrote “Hi Liz.” She freaked, they exchanged 19 e-mails on the matter, the McBee aide apologizing all along the way, and Elizabeth Becton angrily lecturing the whole way. The end.
What I do find interesting about this is that my tax dollars are paying Elizabeth Becton’s salary. She must have put a lot of time into berating that poor, unsuspecting fellow from McBee Strategic. I don’t know how much she gets paid, but she probably doesn’t need to rely on short-term loans like a lot of people I know. Those same people also paid their taxes, which pays her salary, which she earned while writing e-mails about something extremely trivial — and being mean while she was at it.
Getting off topic
Besides wasting a bunch of time and taxpayer money, Elizabeth Becton effectively blew off and probably offended a guy who was trying to set up a meeting between her boss, McDermott, and JP Morgan Chase, one of the largest financial institutions in the country.
I think the meeting may have been a little more important than the fact that Miss Becton doesn’t like to be called Liz.
Public record
Numerous cases lately have shown that e-mails, text messages, tweets, instant messages and any other form of written, online communication can absolutely come back to haunt you. Furthermore, people who work for the government should be well aware of the fact that anything they send through their work e-mails is public record. That means we are all allowed to see it.
I hope Elizabeth Becton learns a lesson from this. OK, I hope she learns two lessons. One is, be careful what you e-mail and consider the fact that the entire country is allowed to read it. Lesson two: CALM DOWN.
Yes, I’m taking a side
I’m not going to hide my opinion about who is in the wrong here. I’ve already made it clear that I am not delighted that my taxes pay for Elizabeth Becton to digitally chew out guys who didn’t do anything wrong. I’d really like to emphasize lesson two for Becton: calm down and focus on what’s important.
I think everyone can benefit from this lesson. Of course, I see the irony in the fact that I am blogging about the same e-mail exchange I am calling trivial. Do I think that what Elizabeth Becton did was important enough to make the newspaper and the blogosphere? No, I absolutely do not. BUT: it did. So take heed, Elizabeth Becton and other hot-heads out there. Letting the little things go isn’t just a way to live a more peaceful and happy life — it’s a way to keep from becoming known for your ridiculous temper.
If curiousity consumes you, you can READ THE FULL E-MAIL EXCHANGE HERE.
