45+ Work Emails That Are So Bad They Made Us Blush

Ever sent an embarrassing email from your work email account? We’ve all been there, but most are embarrassed to share their stories on social media. Thankfully, these brave souls saw the humorous side of their situations and shared them for the world to see. From misspelling their own names to autocorrect fails, we’ve compiled a list of work email mistakes that are too funny not to share.

Technology is fantastic, isn’t it? Thanks to mobile apps and the advancements in the tech industry, we now have access to social media, calendars and navigation apps, and even email on our phones.

But, as Erica came to find out, this is not always a good thing, especially with good old autocorrect changing your words and making you sound like one of the X-Men!

Re-reading an important email can help avoid any embarrassing mishaps. We bet poor Seanna wishes that she had done that before clicking ‘send’ when she sent an email to a senior executive.

Typing mistakes are common when you’re in a hurry, and glancing at her email would’ve saved this Twitter user a lot of embarrassment.

One would think that receiving an email signed “Da Jelly” would have the recipient questioning the sender of the email on her rather unique name. Sadly, Danielle was left to discover her blunder all on her own.

Autocorrect is often the cause of many spelling errors, but it does make one wonder why people aren’t proofreading their emails before they click ‘send.’

Your phone’s email app has the function to change your signature to just about anything you want. Unfortunately for this mom, forgetting to change it back led to a rather awkward email exchange with her child’s teacher.

We can only imagine her embarrassment when she realized she had sent and signed an email, ‘Santa.’ Note to self: Change email signature.

All we could do was cringe when we came across this rather unfortunate Tweet from Twitter user Lynda Taylor. After sending out no fewer than 30 CVs, poor Lynda was devastated to find that she had made a rather grave error in her cover letter.

This is one occasion in which autocorrect would’ve come in handy, as we’re sure it would’ve fixed the word to ‘Madam’ for her.

Poor Mr. X got a little more than he bargained for when he joined the company that this Twitter user worked for. When welcoming him to the company via a company-wide email, a rather innocent spelling mistake saw Mr. X able to add a new qualification to his resume.

We can only hope that he saw the humor in this error and enjoyed his time at the company. Alternatively, he might have found it offensive that the company didn’t even bother proofreading his welcome message.

This is a pretty common mistake to make. You sent an email and forgot the attachment. Pier was lucky enough to remember this, so he sent another email and an apology. Unfortunately for him, he once again forgot to send the attachment.

On his third and final attempt, he finally got it right. Well done, Pier! Don’t beat yourself up, though, we’ve all done it. Luckily, most of us don’t do it two, almost three, times!

It takes a bit of concentration to ensure you send an email to the right person. One accidental click or one wrong letter could spell disaster. Jimmy found this out the hard way when he sent an email to all 2,200 employees telling them what he wanted for lunch.

We bet you won’t be so lazy and will double-check who the recipient is from now on, eh Jimbo? Sometimes, a quick read-through before you click ‘send’ can save you a world of embarrassment.

Have you ever had the dreaded misfortune of receiving an email in which someone spelled your name wrong, despite it being in your email signature? It happens way too often, but, as Maurice found out, it’s not always the sender’s fault.

After spelling his name incorrectly, Maurice, or Mautice as he spelled it, was taken aback when he received an email with this odd spelling of his name. It was only after the sender pointed out Maurice’s own mistake that he realized he was the one that got it wrong.

Maybe this person’s colleagues won’t pick up on their sarcasm? Those things tend to translate poorly when written out, so we’re just hoping for their sake that everyone thought this person was truly excited about the meeting.

This is why it’s so important to triple-check who you’re sending things out to – especially when hitting ‘reply.’ We guess it could’ve been worse, they could’ve divulged all their secrets in what they thought was a private email!

Kudos to this person for calling out the OP because that takes some serious guts! It’s fine and well that the OP didn’t like this person’s pitch but there was really no need to be rude about it.

We hope that this incident taught them a bit of a lesson. As for the publicist’s bad idea – at least now they know that it’s not going to work out. It’s just a shame they couldn’t have been informed in a better way.

There’s nothing worse than typing and then sending an email to someone without removing information you shouldn’t be sharing with them. Thanks to Gmail and other platforms, you can now send an entire conversation to someone, including all the emails in that conversation.

As Felix learned, you should never share your conversation history with a client, especially when that conversation contains information on your swindling tactics. Oops!

The fact that the OP’s boss clearly saw the email but didn’t change her ways just shows that the OP wasn’t wrong about her being mean.

This could’ve been a wake-up call for this boss to be a bit nicer but, instead, she seems to enjoy the fact that her employees are afraid of her. Employees being scared to ask questions isn’t beneficial for any workplace, so we argue that this is just a story about a bad boss.

Imagine spelling a rather common word wrong on your own email signature for three years before being told about it! This is exactly the case of Twitter user Some Organised Chaos.

With a username like that, one would think she’d be organized enough to ensure that her signature is up to scratch. Hopefully, she’s learned the right spelling of ‘library’ or changed jobs to something with an easier signature.

It would’ve been useful to know that changing your name on your YouTube account changes your email name too. This knowledge could’ve saved Twitter user Jonina a lot of embarrassment, as she used the name Millennial Unicorn the Avocado Kween on her building associations mailing list.

Imagine making this faux pas! Cringy, to say the least. Well, this is most certainly a lesson learned.

Thanks to technological advancements, sending a quick email while you’re on the go is now possible. But this can quickly lead to many cringe and face-palm moments that end up on the internet for millions of people to see.

Sarah saw the funny side of her typing error and shared it on Twitter for the world to see. All we can say to Twitter user Sarah is, “Thank you for the laughs, Satan! We mean… Sarah.”

Oof! We can’t help but feel sorry for Twitter user Chey who shared that she received an email confirming her acceptance to a college only to receive a second email to say that it was a mistake. Poor Chey.

We can only imagine the disappointment she must have felt. This is definitely a cringe moment, but not for the recipient of this horrible email mistake.

To be fair, this person could very well be both busty and busy. That being said, the former isn’t really an appropriate thing to ask about – especially at work.

Given that this is a harmless mistake and was clearly an accident, we’re willing to bet that the person on the receiving end of this email was able to laugh it off. At least we hope so. Otherwise, the OP might end up being asked to speak to HR!

Texting while under the influence can lead to pretty embarrassing situations. Moreover, emailing while under the influence, like the one that this student sent to her teaching assistant while on strong medication, will have you rolling on the floor with laughter.

All Abby wanted to do was ask her TA for an extension on a paper that was due, but instead, she went on a medication-fuelled tirade. We don’t know what’s funnier – the spelling or how she ended her email by telling her TA that she loved him. She says he was gracious in his response, though, which is nice.

Sigh. Typos seem to be one of the most common mistakes when sending an email. Most aren’t that bad, but sending a typo to your sister’s teacher about why she wasn’t in school and misspelling the word ‘sick’ is one way to get your name onto our list of the worst emails ever sent.

One small godsend is that the teacher either read the email in a rush and glanced over the rather naughty word without comprehending it, or they decided to pay no attention to it, understanding that it was a typo on the sender’s part.

Zainab’s boss had the grace to see the funny side of this rather funny email from one of her employees when she dropped a quick message to let them know she wouldn’t be in after getting her wisdom teeth removed.

While we’ll never know why she had to tell her boss that she was on her way to see her cat, we do thank her for sharing this embarrassing blunder with the world. We could all use a good old hearty laugh to distract us from the boring office humdrum from time to time, and this email is a sure winner in that category!

Proofreading your email before you click the ‘send’ button can save you a world of embarrassment, as Carson found out when he sent this rather cryptic email to his professor regarding some coursework.

Of course, we feel sorry for him, but we can’t help but laugh at how desperate his email seems. At least now he’ll know to proofread!

Butch is not exactly a common name, but it is easy to spell. Well, that’s what we thought until we came across this hilarious blunder that Lala shared.

What was meant to be a quick email to let everyone know that Butch wouldn’t be in the office quickly became an embarrassing story that Lala could share at parties. This is just another great example of why using the spell-check function is so important.

It seems that not even people who write for a living can escape silly mistakes when sending an email. Alex Hirsch, the creator of the popular animated series Gravity Falls, shared his worst email on Twitter, showing his followers how he sent a colleague an email containing the pumpkin emoji.

Being known for his hilarious show, one would expect a funny email every now and then. In fact, it probably went unnoticed by the recipient, as it’s ordinary behavior for Hirsch.

We’d love to know what line of work this Twitter user is in that prompted an email that warned them not to do anything stupid. Ellie Schnitt shared a screenshot of the email as she explained that while she was aware it was a company-wide email, she felt it was directed at her.

Hmmm, do you have a bit of a guilty conscience there, Ellie? I’d be interesting to know the backstory of the email’s remark and why Ellie feels that it’s meant for her.

Noticing you’ve made a mistake in your email greeting before you click the ‘send’ button could save you the embarrassment of someone thinking you’re crazy. Trying to save face by correcting yourself with a follow-up email, in which you end up defending your previous greeting, just lands you deeper in your own mess.

If this were us, we would’ve just let it go and not sent another email that would make us look like we’ve lost our minds entirely.

If you spend your day sitting in front of a computer sending one email after the other, you’d also try and find a way to simplify your email signature. Shaking things up a bit, Sasha’s co-worker decided to use “anyways” as a way to sign off his emails.

When you’re tired and have to deal with requests that you just don’t want to deal with, your email signature can be a handy way to let others know that you’re not in the mood to do anything more.

Patrick seems to know a thing or two about keeping an email as short as possible. Why waste time writing a lengthy email when a short phrase will do? Genius, pure genius, Patrick.

If you know you’ll be apologizing for something you did, or in this case, didn’t do, a quick ‘sorry’ is all you need to send to show them your remorse.

Twitter user Rachel shared a rather relatable email. The sender of this rather hilarious email was clearly running around trying to get things done at work and asked Rachel if they could postpone their meeting.

Writing more than “I have lost control of the day” clearly would’ve wasted time, and she successfully conveyed the veracity of her workload with this quick one-liner.

Do you use your bathroom time to get some work done? Sadly, this wasn’t what Twitter user KnifeSweats was trying to do when she emailed her colleague from the bathroom on only her second day of work.

We’re sure her co-worker got a kick out of this email that explained her trouble with being stuck in the bathroom. Don’t worry, KnifeSweats, we would’ve done the same.

Have you ever received an email that you really just don’t have the energy to reply to? Perhaps it’s yet another email from your boss asking about a deadline or another client request that you know will mean more work.

Whatever the case, we can all relate to Olivia’s feelings as she, too, would rather ignore the email that’s sitting in her inbox.

It’s no secret that many European companies allow a better work-life balance for their employees. But looking at this tweet from Twitter user Leanna, it’s clear that America could learn a thing or two about giving employees time off.

Imagine having this as your out-of-office reply! Americans need to change how they do business and how companies treat their employees.

Who sends an important email at 4:47 pm on a Friday afternoon? AmberSevart shared this rather bizarre email exchange that she had to deal with when she came into work one Monday morning.

Clearly, this person has no regard for working hours, or they feel that they’re more important than AmberSevart’s free time. Whatever the case, a bit of patience would do them a world of good.

It’s important to be courteous and professional when dealing with clients, and the need to use phrases like “I hope this email finds you well” is pretty standard practice. But as Twitter user Marc points out, does an email ever find you well?

What do you think? Should we just drop the falsities and cut straight to the chase? Or is it better to include these outdated sayings in an email?

Poor, poor Heather learned the importance of always checking what you’re attaching to your email. We can only imagine her surprise when she received this email pointing out that she had sent a Jamie Oliver recipe with her job application.

But that’ll teach her to take her time and ensure everything is in order before she clicks that ‘send’ button next time.

We all wish we had the guts to send this email to our boss when they push for you to work faster than you’re able to. Have you ever done anything like this?

More importantly, would you have the guts to? We praise Twitter user SMV for her idea but we’d probably be too scared to actually send this one out.

Matt sure hit the nail on the head with his hilarious tweet about people who send emails after 4:30 pm. They should know that this is when you’re winding down your work day and don’t have the energy to deal with yet another request, no matter how simple.

We could all take a page out of Matt’s book and only respond to emails before 4:30 pm. Now, that’s how you set boundaries!

We’re unsure if this is an actual email signature or if Lucy shared this as a joke. Whatever the case, it’s brilliant and deserves a share and a laugh. Imagine sending an email to someone and getting this as a response. Hilarious!

Thank you, Lucy, for sharing this gem. We can completely relate to this type of thinking about emails. They can definitely take a bit of emotional preparation to reply to.

If you’re one of those people who tend to use overly formal language in your emails, this one is for you! Why not add a bit of fun to your work emails by adding in phrases that Colin Firth would use in his greetings in those Jane Austen period dramas he’s famous for?

Try it out today, and you, too, can pretend to be an Aristocrat. It may even bring a smile to your recipient’s face!

Aaargh. People who send emails outside working hours or on weekends are the absolute worst! Thankfully, Kathryn has shared her great email signature with the world.

We’re not sure how well this would go down, but it’s worth a try! It’s especially worth it if you have to deal with this problem regularly.

It’s customary to set an out-of-office response when you’re on leave or have taken a vacation. As Megan shares, though, some people tend to think they’re more important than your vacation and they simply ignore the message entirely.

Those people will send another email a few days later to ask why they’ve had no response. Out-of-office messages are a courtesy, and it’s not really our problem if people choose to ignore them. But it’s still frustrating to get those impatient people who ignore the message.

Have you ever received an email that started with “I hope this email finds you well?” While the sender was most likely just being polite, receiving hundreds of emails that start like this every day can get a bit much, especially when you know they’re not being sincere in their wishes.

It’s enough to make you want to lie down on your desk and cry, right? Sometimes, the day is just not sunny and happy. So no, the email doesn’t find us well!