Two years ago, an HBO Max intern accidentally sent a blank test email to part of its subscriber list. The subject line read “Integration Test Email #1,” and the message read, “This template is used by integration tests only.”

Naturally, this left subscribers confused and wondering what in the world the email meant, and why they received it. 

So HBO Max owned up to the mistake on its Twitter account, saying, “We mistakenly sent out an empty test email to a portion of our HBO Max mailing list this evening. We apologize for the inconvenience, and as the jokes pile in, yes, it was the intern. No, really. And we’re helping them through it.”

But the blunder morphed into a beautiful thing as THOUSANDS of users and big corporations, wrote encouraging notes to “Dear Intern,” confessing their own work blunders, and comforting the poor person who made the mistake.

These confessions are most entertaining, and beg the question: Who in YOUR life needs the reassurance of your experience in the wake of a mistake you made?

Listen in this week and be inspired to be compassionate enough to share with someone in need a story about your own impossibly stupid moves!

NOTE:
Foreman, Alison. “Twitter users are comforting the intern behind that mass HBO Max email with work horror stories.”   Mashable, June 18, 2021.