Warning: Your Smartphone May Cause Career Limitations

This column is dedicated to all of my loyal workaholic business comrades. You know who you are. You are among those of us hardworking individuals who:

• Wake up in the morning to the soft light of your smartphone and start replying to emails from bed to make sure you stay on top of things, many times before your eyes fully adjust.
• Carefully set your phone close enough to the shower that it you can hear it buzz, but far enough away that it doesn’t get wet – just in case a critical early morning email comes in.
• Have become an expert at making lunches, or being the taxi driver, while simultaneously hosting a conference call. 
• And so much more.

If you are like me, you are 24/7 and focused on building your business and driving results. But what you may not know is that while you are working so hard, your phone may be cutting your career short.

This new phenomenon is called “autocorrect” and it happens in almost every test or email application out there. Disguised as a nice, helpful way to make you look literate, if you are not careful, here is what could happen to you.

To see more humorous work autocorrect disasters, click here.

Yikes! While we all laughed at these messages (or at least some of them), errors like these could cost you a promotion, or even a job when times are tough. And with customer messages, mistakes can be costly.

Marketers can learn a lot from these messages, including:

• How to recover from an “oops” type of email/message – own up or else be exposed.
• Spell check might not be enough – lots of these errors were spelled correctly. Make sure your QA team is on top of things!
• Take the time to craft your message and read it a few times. Sending messages within 30 minutes of waking, or after 14 hours of work can often lead to careless “mistakes.”
• Laugh….Sometimes there is nothing else you can do.

To see a full list of autocorrect messages that will make you laugh so hard you will cry, go to Damnyouautocorrect.com.

Enjoy!