One of my managers is a big fan of “friendly reminder” emails. Sometimes they are important, but most of them are petty things that could be addressed privately… or not at all.

I work on several different projects, so I am pretty diligent about using the related project name in the email subject line to keep things in order. Let’s say his project is called “Alpha.” I sent an email with the subject line “Project Alpha Weekly Meeting” to ask everyone to update their notes for the meeting the next day.

A few minutes later, [Manager] sent his own email to the entire team:

Manager’s Email: “Hello team. Friendly reminder to properly identify your emails with “Alpha Project” in the subject line to avoid confusion.”

I was trying to decide how I felt about his email when my coworker sent a reply:

Coworker’s Reply: “Hi, [Manager]. Which project is this about? The subject line just says, ‘Friendly Reminder’.”

Four people laughed out loud at the same time. [Manager] did not reply, nor did he bring up my horrible mistake in the next meeting.