Infamous Email Writers Aren't Always Killing Their Careers After All
It's the latest entry in the annals of bridge burning: After two interviews in January, Dianna Abdala emailed Will Korman Feb. 3 that his job offer "would neither fulfill me nor support the lifestyle I am living." She followed up with a voicemail Feb. 5 saying much the same thing.
Mr. Korman, who had already ordered Ms. Abdala's business cards and believed she had agreed on a start date, wasn't happy. Certainly, he thought, her rejection warranted more than an email and a Sunday night voicemail. "It smacks of immaturity and is quite unprofessional," he wrote back to her. "I am extremely disappointed in the way this played out." But he did add, "I sincerely wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors."
Replied Ms. Abdala, a 24-year-old law school graduate: "A real lawyer would have put the contract into writing and not exercised any such reliance until he did so."
Mr. Korman: "Thank you for the refresher course on contracts… Do you really want to start [annoying] more experienced lawyers at this early stage of your career?"
Ms. Abdala: "bla bla bla."
We all know what happens when someone commits a particularly embarrassing gaffe in a private email conversation: The message gets forwarded, with each recipient instructing the next to "read from the bottom up." Indeed, this testy exchange skipped off servers as far away as China with a subject line attesting to its journey: "Subject: Fwd: FW: FW: Lawyers Behaving Badly." People also added comments, such as "Great lesson here… on email and how to ruin your career."
But not so fast. Certainly one could turn this into cautionary tale No. 1,346 about what not to commit to private email. But if you haven't learned that lesson yet, you haven't been paying attention -- or, more likely, you don't care that much. "I'm more worried about whether I've left my hair iron on than this little email exchange," Ms. Abdala told me over the phone.
These days, résumé building can be less about preserving a reputation than about acquiring one in the first place. Just ask Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth, the "Apprentice" contestant who famously said, "I'm going to crush my competition, and I'm going to enjoy doing it." She has parlayed her backstabbing into a television career and speaking engagements. "Who knew that being soo bad could be soo good$$!!," the show's Web site quotes her as saying.
"I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that this kind of behavior is naturally rewarded," cautions Paul Argenti, professor of corporate communication at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business. "But it does lead to success in some realms." And those realms can include the legal profession, sales teams, trading floors, entrepreneurial endeavors -- in other words, the corners of the business world where unmitigated gall can be more marketable than galling. "This could be great for [Ms. Abdala's] career if you think about it," he says.
That's because in the rough and tumble of business, bad behavior is sometimes admired, and good behavior isn't necessarily rewarded. Take, for example, corporate whistleblowers, who don't exactly get promoted for their efforts and often have to turn to the law to protect themselves, Prof. Argenti says.
Ms. Abdala also has legal precedent on her side. In 2003, Jonas Blank, a summer associate, sent an email in which he described his job at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. "I'm busy doing jack," he wrote. "Went to a nice 2hr sushi lunch today at Sushi Zen. Nice place. Spent the rest of the day typing emails and [gabbing] with people."
But Mr. Blank inadvertently sent the missive to a group of 40 colleagues, about half of whom were partners at the law firm. Needless to say, at least one of the recipients flicked the email into the wider ether. Mr. Blank subsequently responded with a tortured apology: "I am thoroughly and utterly ashamed and embarrassed not only by my behavior but by the implicit reflection such behavior could have on the firm."
Despite that episode, Mr. Blank got a full-time position at Skadden and still works there today, though he is less publicly communicative than before: "I really can't comment on it in any way," he said last week. Added Carol Sprague, director of attorney hiring at Skadden: "He recognized that he had made a mistake and then really worked hard all summer and proved that he was an intelligent, hard-working person."
As for Ms. Abdala, she says a mea culpa "will never happen." She's living on funds provided by her father and has rented office space for her own practice. "I've never been the type to work under someone," she says.
And Mr. Korman? He calls Ms. Abdala's behavior "preposterous" but still credits her with having high energy and "spunk." And despite all the chatter about how the incident will hurt her, he says, "I don't think that anything that's happened throws an obstacle in her path."
In fact, that's something the two almost agree on. "It really isn't going to affect my career," says Ms. Abdala, "and if it does, it's probably for the better."
出言不逊未必断送前程
这是最近发生的又一个自断后路的例子：1月份面试两次之后，戴安娜?阿卜杜拉(Dianna Abdala)在2月3日给威尔?科曼(Will Korman)写了一封邮件，称科曼提供的工作机会“既不能满足我的理想，也不足以维持我现有的生活方式”。接著，她在2月5日又发了一封语音邮件，内容跟上一封大致相同。
在此之前，科曼已经为阿卜杜拉定制了名片，以为她同意了开始工作的日期。看到这些邮件后，科曼自然很不高兴。当然，他觉得，她完全有理由用一封电邮和一个在周日夜晚发来的语音邮件来拒绝这个职位。“这样做有些幼稚，而且显得很不职业，”他在回信中说道。“事情结束的方式让我极为失望，”不过他又补充道，“我真诚祝愿你在未来的职业生涯中能有好运气。”
阿卜杜拉--一位24岁的法学院毕业生--回信说：“一个真正的律师会将这种契约关系白纸黑字地写下来，而在此之前他是不会这样信任对方的。”
科曼：“谢谢你给我补了一堂合同课...你真的想初出茅庐就得罪比你经验丰富的律师吗？”
阿卜杜拉：“......”
当电子邮件被人们相互转发时，在私人邮件交谈中犯的一个特别尴尬的错误就会被所有人看到。每个收信者都会告诉下个阅读的人“从末尾读起”。的确，这个频繁传递的信息从一个服务器跳到另一个服务器，甚至远至中国，从主题栏就可以看出它走了多远：“Fwd: FW: FW:行为恶劣的律师“。人们会在信里加上评论，比如“这是个很好的教训，让我们知道电子邮件怎样毁掉一个人的前程。”
不过先别急于下结论。我们当然可以把这个故事当成第1,346个警世传说，告诉人们在私人邮件中有什么是不可以写的。不过如果你还没有从中吸取教训，那么你就不会注意到这个问题，更有可能是你根本没那么在乎。“与其说我担心这封小小的邮件怎样被人传阅，不如说我更担心自己是否忘了关掉烫发器的电源，”阿卜杜拉在电话里跟我说道。
如今，撰写履历可能更多地是关注如何首先树立好声誉，而不是如何保存名声。关于这一点，看看《学徒》(Apprentice)节目中的竞争者奥马罗莎?马尼格尔特－斯塔沃斯(Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth)就知道了。她的名言是：我要打败所有的竞争者，我要享受这个过程。为了达到目的她不惜采取各种卑鄙手段。“谁曾想到做坏事的滋味是这么好！”节目的网站引述了她的话。
“我不想草率地下结论说这种行为自然会获得回报，”达特茅斯大学塔克商学院(Tuck School of Business)的企业关系教授保罗?阿肯提(Paul Argenti)警告说。“但在某些领域，这的确会带来成功。仔细想想，这对阿卜杜拉的职业生涯未尝不是件好事，”他说。
这是因为，在混乱的商业世界，恶劣的行为有时会受到推崇，而好的行为却未必有好报。阿肯提教授说，比如企业中揭发他人的人，他们努力工作未必会获得升职，还经常要借助法律来保护自己。
在阿卜杜拉之前，有一个跟她类似的情况。2003年，约拿斯?布兰克(Jonas Blank)发了一封邮件，里面描述了他在Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom公司的工作情况。“我无所事事，”他写道，“今天中午花了两个小时在Sushi Zen享用寿司午餐。这个地方很棒。然后整个下午在发邮件，和别人聊天。”
布兰克不小心把这个邮件群发给了40个同事，他们当中有一半是这个律师事务所的合伙人。不用说，至少有一个收件人把这封邮件转发给了更多的人。布兰克随后对此作了道歉：“我为自己的行为、更为它给公司可能造成的无形影响感到无地自容。”
尽管有过这个小插曲，布兰克还是在Skadden公司获得了一个全职的岗位，至今还在那里工作，但现在已经不像过去那么喜欢在公共场合高谈阔论了。“对于这件事情，我真的没有什么可说的，”他表示。Skadden公司负责招聘律师的卡洛?斯普拉格(Carol Sprague)说：“他承认了自己的错误，然后整个夏天都非常努力地工作，并证明自己是个聪明而努力的人。”
至于阿卜杜拉，她称自己“永远不会再犯”这样的错误。她现在靠父亲的资助来生活，并租了一个办公室，自立门户。“我从来都不是那种能在别人手下干活的人，”她说。
科曼怎么说？他称阿卜杜拉的行为“非常可笑”，不过他还是称赞她精力充沛，“胆识过人”。尽管很多人都说邮件风波会损害她的职业生涯，但科曼表示：“我不认为过去发生的事会成为她前进道路的障碍。”
事实上，有一点他们几乎是不谋而合的。“这丝毫不会影响我的职业生涯，”阿卜杜拉说，“即使有，那也是好的影响。”
