The new issue of GOOD Magazine is all about work. We're asking you to send us your most hilarious office email thread.
Every three months, GOOD releases our quarterly magazine, which examines a given theme through our unique lens. Recent editions have covered topics like the impending global water crisis, the future of transportation, and the amazing rebuilding of New Orleans. This quarter's issue is about work, and we'll be rolling out a variety of stories all month. You can subscribe to GOOD here.
Email at the office must have seemed like a great innovation at first: Write your business partners across the country, instantly! But now you spend half your day at work just sorting through a morass of unnecessary messages, and it’s impossible to escape.
But workplace email has also given birth to a new art form: The spontaneous comic email thread, in which a seemingly innocent question or request gets derailed by a slew of irreverent, off-topic responses. This is a serious “problem” in our office, leaving innocent emailers frustrated, without an answer to their queries, and swearing never to email the editors again. We’ve included one of our worst.
We want to see yours.
The Objective
Celebrate the art form of the off-topic office email thread.
The Assignment
Send us a creative or funny email thread from your office or school.
The Requirements
You can forward the office email thread to projects@goodinc.com or copy it into a text document and include it as an attachment. We’ll publish some of the best examples, so let us know if the company or employee names should be redacted. Don’t worry, we’re willing to go to jail to protect our sources.
An Example
To: Everybody
Subject: We’re supposed to come in at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow?
On Oct 5, at 11:47 a.m., Operations Manager:
Hey everyone,
A couple of you have asked whether Monday is a day off. Like most small businesses, we’re not going to close for Columbus Day. We’re working on a plan for winter holidays. I’ll send details next week.
On Oct 5, at 12:16 p.m., Zach Frechette wrote:
When I was a kid I used to dream about being “like most small business.”
On Oct 5, 12:35 p.m., Morgan Clendaniel wrote:
You may not know this, but when the Santa Maria hit shore, Columbus said: “Let this day be celebrated by the federal government, and businesses over a certain size.”
On Oct 5, 12:43 p.m., Patrick James wrote:
It’s true. And, actually, upon landing, the mates of the Santa Maria did rest and relax. However, the mates of the two smaller vessels—the Nina and Pinta—immediately got to work.
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