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A coworker prepared a fact sheet with details about the company and made copies for everyone in our workgroup to have handy by their desk. This was a revised version of one that she had passed out a week before.
Assuming that this was a document from Admin/Internal Communications (rather than our own Accounting workgroup) I commented lightheartedly about several typos that I noticed. She chimed in and said that she noticed a couple as well.
I later found out that she had prepared the document herself.
I was mortified.
Although I held a position as proofreader/technical editor for 18 years, I hardly ever mention typos that I notice, even in online forums, and I am particularly careful not to criticize others about typos IRL to their face. If I had known that she was the producer of the document there is NO WAY IN HELL that I would have mentioned typos to her.
I reached out and apologized profusely, adding that it didn't even matter anyway since it was for internal use only, and that if she ever wants anyone to proofread anything that I would be happy to do so. I also explained to her that I was in a job where all I did was proofread technical documents, so it's ingrained in me to never stop proofreading.
She accepted my apology and said that she was not offended.
I should have known that this was not the end of the story.
A week later I heard her relating the incident to another employee. She made it clear that she was offended and that she's still miffed about it.
I suppose the best thing for me to do is just be polite and cordial and try and live it down.
Any suggestions?
What I think is hilarious about this story is that by complaining about how you criticized her typos - she was broadcasting that she can't spell to everyone LOL. What an idiot.
Yeah, just let it blow over like it's over. The only person who looks like an idiot here is the person letting everyone know she can't spell. That's just too funny. Maybe next time she'll pay attention to all of the green and red lines under a bunch of words on her document that are glaringly telling her something's wrong.
Eh you did what you could. She felt disrespected and got mad you brought up her mistakes. So she tried to make you look bad.
I think you wanted to apologize Because you felt it was rude of you to point it out unknowingly to her face...you weren't wrong with apologize because it was mean and you didn't mean to.
But now she's all mad that you said something about it to her and she has it out for you now.
Nothing to do now. Let her stew in her nastiness. She's just embarrassed.... Let it go. Nothing you can do about it now...
Maybe the company culture isn't that stringent? I work for a Fortune 100 and we get communication from corporate level on down that is absolutely riddled with spelling and typo errors. I don't think the concept of proofreading has hit a lot of the upper level mgt. (or their lackeys?)
Just ignore her. I am appalled at the massive number of mistakes I read often in others notices. I'm no english expert, but knowing the usage of Their, There and They're just makes me head spin....These mistakes from people with 10+ years writing...
In the workplace (and not online, where typos can be rants, busy people, or multi taskers) I've always used typos to look deeper: the co-workers use of words out of context, ILLITERACY, low level of education, low skillset, in a position of authority for all the wrong reasons. (relative of the boss, went to school, smoke the same bong, etc)
them being "choked" because you called out the obvious means they either do not look upon you as an equal, are easily threatened, and that means they won't be in your corner on other issues.
example: I took the car keys away from a very, very drunk co worker I was on the same committee with, when his bosses didn't have the guts to do it. He could have killed someone as home was a long ways away.
He never forgave me; I demonstrated to his surprise who was the adult in the room. I had never had a disagreement with him before, but if he had killed someone and I had let him drive home, I'd never have forgiven myself.
OP: You did what you could to keep the peace and went above and beyond by offering an apology.
A week seems like a long time for the coworker to be miffed about this, which is really about the embarrassment of having her mistake pointed out, and not because of anything you did wrong. If you had said she was still a little shaken up after an hour, then maybe I could see this. But a week? That seems excessive over something minor like this. She needs to be the one to work through whatever is causing her to carry these issues around for an extended time, and you can't force her to do that.
The best thing for you to do is try to realize that these issues can arise with certain people, and just continue to act professionally, as you already have. Don't torture yourself over issues that other people have because once this blows over there will be something else to get stressed about. That can be easier said than done, but when you start to do this, you realize how valuable that is in making your work life (and life in general) much easier and happier.
I've worked in publishing, so I notice grammatical and spelling errors all the time. I think it might have been your delivery that came across wrong. Offering to proofread future emails/mailings because that's what you did in previous jobs might have been overkill. I used to work with someone who would tell me all the time "I guess it's the editor in me" when correcting me while she made multiple grammatical and spelling errors would send me over the edge.
I was hired as a superintendent ofa department in a manufacturing plant. It was a union plant and seniority was paramount. We could not schedule people as it was convenient based on skills and experience. There was extra work for a couple of shifts one weekend and I scheduled two people based on their seniority. Two foremen came to me and said those two could not be scheduled onthe same shift. One of thm might not survive it. I asked how this applied to the seniorityy list.
Well, this was an exception and everybody understood it. I called them both into my office and told them I was new in the company. There is a lot of history I just didn't know. You two have seniority where you both have an opportunity to work the same shift. It requires cooperation to get the job done. Will there be a problem with this schedule? They both agreed there would not be a problem.
No accusations or recriminations. Everybody considered whatever happened in my office to have been some kind of miracle. Yes, there had been an argument years earlier. No, it didn't need an unwritten side agreement to the labor contract. The shift operated efficiently and the old superstition had ended.
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