Road Rage is a terrifying thing.  

It starts off when someone does something to slight another driver...and then it escalates to the point where the actions become crazy and downright scary.

It's the same when an email exchange turns nasty.  This happens often, and it happens with friends, business partners and even co-workers.

I was involved in one of those recently, and had the good sense to not inflame the situation by responding.  Sometimes it is better to walk away.

Here's what you can do to avoid these things:

1. Pick up the phone:  Sometimes, we read things in email that aren't in real life.   When we do that, we inflame the situation by responding.  Instead, try to pick up the phone and call the other person.  It works. This is always the best way to settle it.  People tend to be more level headed over the phone and they tend not to over-react in person.
2. Walk Away:  Don't respond.  Understand that the other person may be having a bad day or may be looking for a fight.  You don't have to be a part of it.  Chances are that if you ignore it, the person will stop inflaming the situation and forget about it.  You can chose whether you want to continue talking with this person again.  If you have to work with them, then you may want to weigh your options if this is a regular occurance.  
3. Kill them with Kindness:   My father used to tell me to do this to people.  Make light of the situation and don't feed the troll.  Agree with them, tell them that they are correct, and move on.  Be careful...this may make the person even more mad.
4. Sever ties with this person:  Sometimes, these people are more trouble than they are worth.  A wise person once told me not to get in a pissing war with a....well you know.

Have a great weekend, and keep fighting the good fight.

Thinking about sending those Kate Upton photos to your pals at work?  Think again.

Thinking about sending that racist joke around the office?  Are you crazy?

Today, the internet is abuzz with another bonehead move by someone who should have known better.  Bruce Levenson, future-former-owner of the Atlanta Hawks apparently didn't get the memo.  

While I have no idea whether Bruce is a racist, or whether he deserves to lose his NBA team, I know this.  If you think that your emails are safe from unintended recipients, you are wrong.  Emails are very easy to forward...so if your personal emails would make you look bad in the public eye, you shouldn't be sending it.

13 years ago, I was at a bar at a company function.  I walked up to my CEO who was having an engaging conversation with a gentleman that I will refer to as “Joe S”.

As I walked up, I watched Joe get all animated…this guy was a talker.  

My eyes turned to our CEO, who had a priceless look on his face.  He looked at me.  I looked at him with a bewildered look.  I shrugged my shoulders, and made that weird puzzled look with my lips like you make when you have no idea what to say.

“So, do you want me to send it to you”, asks Joe.

Not sure where Joe works now.  True story.  Not kidding.

1.     E-mail is not your friend.  People send a lot of things, and a lot of it is NSFW.  Try not to read it, and NEVER forward it. 

2.     If your boss sends this stuff out, you do not have permission to send it out. 

3.     Think two steps ahead.  Someone sends you a joke which may be offensive.  You send it out to your buddy.  Your buddy sends it out to 25 of his closest friends.  One of those friends is a prospect, and is offended.  He looks up the email trail, and sees it originated from you.  Good job.

4.     You can always send stuff from your private email, but I have always found that racist, sexist, porn and other off color humor is usually something I don’t want my name attached to.

Submitted by Jared Chimovitz:

Background info:  My office line rings to my cell phone. 

One evening, I get a call and only notice the last name. 

Assuming it was a good friend of mine, I answer: "I'm naked and about to do terrible things to my wife".  

The voice on the other end is much deeper than my friends.   As he clears his throat I realize my mistake. A big mistake.  The voice on the other end asked if he could speak to the owner of the company. While I am my own boss, I was concerned that I may have lost business before I even started.

Luckily, It turned out it was said friends father. I profusely apologized and restarted the conversation in a much more professional manner. He did hire me and continues to do so to this day.

We laugh about it all the time, but I learned a valuable lesson...Always assume that any caller is a business caller.

Submitted by Jeff Katz:

I cant believe i wore a sombrero to a sales call! 

Roughly 15 years ago, I was the Sales Manager for a company that provided services (translation, language training, Cultural awareness training) to companies to assist them in communicating, reaching, conducting and expanding business with their international counterparts. 

Being based in Detroit, Several of my accounts and sales targets were within the automotive sector, Tier 1, OEM's, fortune 500 companies. By this time, I was already 5 years experienced in this industry, and had developed a solid "stable" of clients. I had been chasing a sales lead for at least 3 years at one major OEM, to no avail. as time went by, a college friend was employed there. My friend got me a meeting with the decision maker (V.P. of HR). before the meeting, I did my usual needs analysis on the phone so i could be prepared for my sales call. I was told that they were opening an office in Mexico, and they were looking to train the American employees, Spanish. 

Easy enough. 

We did that countless times before. I was also told, that there is no way im getting the business, because they have had a long lasting relationship with a competitor, they were meeting with me, to fulfill a vendor quota. Thinking that we werent EVER going to get this business (or future biz), we wanted to make a lasting impression. My meeting was set for November 1. (i know this because it was the day after halloween, part of my fall back plan) My co-worker dared me to wear a sombrero to the sales call. As im waiting in the lobby to be called into my meeting, I was gaining attention by several people walking by. 

I finally get called into my sales call, my heavy sombrero and all. As I walk in wearing my suit, tie and sombrero, the VP of HR is just staring at me, The jaw of my college friend who arranged the meeting, dropped. horror in her eyes. We start the meeting, and 2 minutes into it, The VP of HR says " will you take that damn thing off"? 

We finish the meeting and say our good byes. As previously warned by my friend, Im confident that im not going to get the business, but that i made a lasting impression. I get back to my office, and my friend left me a msg on my VM saying that i embarrassed her tremendously. 2 weeks later, we were awarded that business opportunity, at a higher rate than our competitor that had a long lasting relationship, all because the decision maker, laughed and saw us thinking out of the box. 

That account grew exponentially over the next 4 years. To this day, i cant believe i did that, and no, ive never done anything remotely similar to this, since. 

This was not only my most embarrassing sales call, but most memorable.  Ole!

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