Molly was frustrated with work and her therapist recommended writing down her feelings to work through them, so she wrote herself an email venting all of her feelings, but then she accidentally sent it to her boss. Now her office is awkward and she can tell her boss is acting differently to her. How would you handle it if you accidentally sent it to him when you never meant him to see it?
Ayla Brown’s Call With Molly
Ayla Brown: Oh, my gosh. Good morning, Molly. You have committed a sin. A sin of pressing send prematurely. Tell me about the email you sent to someone. Who was it?
Molly: It was actually my boss. Yeah. Long story short, I’ve been seeing a therapist for a year, and just day to day things at work just really work me up and get me kind of angry. So she said that I should start journaling my thoughts and feelings and write letters to some of the people that may be making me angry or pissed me off at work. So I decided to write a letter to my boss, not with the intention to send it. You know everything so digital now. I’m always on the computer, always on my phone. So I wrote it as an email.
Ayla Brown: And?
Molly: I meant to save it as a draft. That’s what I thought I did. I thought I saved it as a draft, but I accidentally sent it to him.
Ayla Brown: To your bosses email?
Molly: Yes, to my boss.
Ayla Brown: Let me just recap really quickly. Because your therapist said, Hey, this is a really good exercise. If you’re feeling angry toward a specific person, do a mock letter to them and explain why you’re mad and you did that, but you accidentally sent it to your boss. What did it say? If you don’t mind sharing some information.
Molly: I mean, it was pretty bad.
Ayla Brown: Okay, give me an example.
What Molly Accidentally Wrote In an Email
Molly: I was just venting to him about everything because I was really trying to release it all and just let it out. I was saying that he micromanages. He’s expecting too much. He’s not friendly. I mean, I might have even said things about his appearance just because sometimes he’s annoying to look at after he’s bothering me. I really went in on this letter. But I really would never have sent it to him or said these things.
Ayla Brown: Do you know if you saw it? I’m assuming he did. It came in as an email, but maybe there’s a small percentage of a hope that he did not see it.
Molly: I really wish that he didn’t. But the tension at work is definitely building up. It’s very awkward.
Ayla Brown: Yeah. Oh, I’m sure.
Molly: I sense at work I can tell and I feel like he’s not the only one that knows. I feel like word has gone around. There’s so much tension. It’s just a really bizarre situation now. And I don’t know what to do. I haven’t been fired yet, but I feel like it’s coming and I’m just so scared of losing my job now. I don’t know.
Ayla Brown: Right. This was just supposed to be a therapeutic exercise. So what does Molly do? If you are in Molly’s situation where you accidentally sent a scathing letter to your own boss, how would you react? Would you just not say anything and hope that he never brings it up? Or would you go and apologize? What is the play here? What should Molly do? Thank you so much. Good luck Molly.
Molly: Oh, my gosh. Thank you.
