3 Hot Topic Screw-ups And How to Avoid Them

by | Oct 3, 2011

If you ever want to get the comments flying, select a hot topic.

  • Health care reform
  • Grammar, typing or spelling miscues
  • Facebook changes

I admit I touched on all of these topics at one time or another

Even though I have a health care blog and 30+ years in the industry, I remain fairly neutral on the discussion of health care reform.

Until my insurance premium was increased over 19 percent.

  • No, this is not a rant about health care reform
  • It’s how you avoid the faux pas that often accompanies hot topics

Taking it to Social Media

Guilty as charged.

I took my anger over the double-digit premium increase to social media. Rarely a good idea when you are still in the zero to blazing stage.

I was still ticked off when I read a friend’s response. At least I thought I read it.

  • I couldn’t get past what seemed a defense of the increase
  • And what I took as someone trying to teach me about the industry
  • Me with 30+ years

Talk about tripping over your ego.

Then I saw the teeny, tiny More that indicated the rest of her message was truncated. Oh.

The good news is, it inspired this post. The bad news is, it reminded me that even I can screw up. I know, surprising.

So, here are 3 screw-ups discovered in this one communication. Hey, I don’t like wasting time on a single screw-up.

Screw-up #1 – Taking to the keyboard while still angry

Social media has many pluses. But, there are also some definite downsides.

  • It lures you into over-sharing
  • It does it publicly
  • It goes to infinity and beyond

Who amongst us hasn’t sent a tweet we wish we didn’t or sent an email that had us praying for a recall that really worked? Which leads me to my second screw-up.

Screw-up #2 – Hitting send or enter without thinking.

Unlike the words that fly out of our mouths before our brains kick in, our typed words have a second – and even a third – chance for rescue.

All we have to do is wait until we hit send or enter.

Maybe in those few moments of redemption, our brain will wake up and scream at our negative digit discourse.

Screw-up #3 – Ignoring that voice in our head

Or perhaps it’s your gut. Wherever that little voice is located, it rarely steers you wrong. Makes you wonder why we ignore it so much, doesn’t it?

The moral of the story?

Health care reform can cause all kinds of problems.

  • What? You had a different idea?
  • Please share it here

We welcome screw-ups. We’re all friends, right?

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22 Comments

  1. Anne Wayman

    lol, Cathy – you do know you’re not alone don’t you?

    Every time I’m sure I’ll never miss that tiny voice inside again I do something dumb. Fortunately I’ve survived them all.

    BTW I’m sorry your health insurance costs went up… I do have strong feelings about health care – but this probably isn’t the place to rant about that 😉

    Hugs

    Reply
  2. Cathy

    Good to know I am not alone, Anne. 🙂

    And believe me, I have a few thoughts of my own on health care. Being a licensed broker makes it even more interesting. 🙂

    Thanks for the comment and the hug. 🙂

    Reply
  3. gina

    I do the exact same thing. I find it’s wise if I unplug the computers when I’m really ticked!

    Reply
  4. John Soares

    Thanks for such a thoughtful examination Cathy.

    My policy is to always think very, very carefully before saying anything negative, whether it’s online or in actual conversation.

    Reply
  5. Cathy

    Gina-love that idea! Simple and effective. LOL! 😀 Thanks for sharing it.

    Reply
  6. Cathy

    John-a good policy. Usually I’m pretty good at it, but sometimes the words just fly out. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by, John.

    Reply
  7. Nicola Parry

    LOL, love this one, Cathy! And your moral of the story is spot-on (I’m talking about the “think before you send” version, not the bit about health care reform). If only we could all just count to 3 before sending, tweeting, or saying whatever it is we want to send, tweet, or say………it might just prevent many inflammatory situations from ever arising. I have an amusing story along these lines where I wished that cutting the cord of my computer would somehow stop an email traversing the ethernet…….many years ago I was dating this guy, & each morning we’d send a cute email to each other. One morning, I hadn’t heard from him, so I compiled a fun “I can’t believe you haven’t sent me my email hug yet” message, & hit send. Just as I did so, I noticed that the recipient’s address was wrong (thanks to those heinous “auto-cue” things that provide you a list of possible contacts to choose from). Clearly I’d accidentally clicked the wrong contact address, & had instead sent the email to the head of a laboratory who I’d done some work with………..

    Reply
  8. Cathy

    Okay, Nicky, ROTFL! 😀 What I want to know is did the lab respond? 🙂

    Reply
  9. Cathy

    Succinctly put, Roy! 🙂

    Reply
  10. Mike Martin

    Hi Cathy. Loved your post. Great suggestions. When in doubt, say nothing!!
    Mike Martin

    Reply
  11. Cathy

    Thanks, Mike-always a good suggestion-when I remember it. 🙂

    Thanks for stopping by, Mike.

    Reply
  12. Martha Giffen

    I am always cautious about sending replies. Seriously, I never send in haste. I actually had someone write a blog post ridiculing me (by name) because I had used Wikipedia as a reference in a blog post. When I sent the comment, that owner wouldn’t post it saying I needed to cool off! It wasn’t true. I knew exactly what I was saying!
    So, I go on record as being censored! I still laugh at that one!

    Reply
  13. Cathy

    Hi Martha: For humor sake, I exaggerated my response. It wasn’t so much how I responded to my friend in writing as how badly I misread her post. Why? Because I was still angry over the unreasonable increase.

    I stay away from getting nasty, but this is definitely one time I would have laughed along with my friend if I had read her post right in the 1st place.

    Thanks for sharing your story, Martha.

    Reply
  14. Kristen

    Sometimes it is hard to be a health blogger…there are a lot of these types of controversial issues related to health or the science of health research, like vaccines, stem cell research, gun control. I could go on and on… Good post.

    Reply
  15. Cathy

    You are so right, Kristen, which is why I try to keep the heat out. Thanks for sharing your comments.

    Reply
  16. Nicky Parry

    Sorry Cathy, almost missed your question there! Well naturally I was a bit of a wreck for a while after hitting “send” – horror and hilarity combined! Once I’d calmed down substantially, I decided to email the lab director who’d received my email hugs. I just stated the obvious – hey, please ignore my previous email, I unfortunately forwarded it to you instead of its intended recipient! He very graciously replied that “Yeah, I wondered about that. Didn’t think it was meant for me, so I just ignored it.” Bless his heart! It did provide good party-piece conversation for quite some time though.

    Reply
  17. Cathy

    That is too funny, Nicky.
    Hey, I feel I should give you a prize. Yours is my 1,000th comment! 🙂 It seems appropriate that it’s yours. Thanks, Nicky!

    Reply
  18. Nicky Parry

    Woohoo, exciting! Funnily enough I feel about 1,000 years old today too….

    Reply
  19. Cathy

    You don’t look a day over 999. 🙂

    Reply
  20. Sharon Hurley Hall

    My strategy is not to enter the recipient’s email address till I’ve had time to re-read what I’ve written. That way I can’t send it accidentally. Of course, I developed that strategy after an incident similar to yours, Cathy. 🙂

    Reply
  21. Cathy

    What a great idea, Sharon! I’m going to steal that one (with full credit to you, of course). 😉

    Reply

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