Necessary Roughness

An email appeared in my corporate Inbox, with the Outlook flag set and sent with High importance, a setting that makes the subject line bleed red. Am I getting a raise? Is there a bomb scare? Read on!

The sender’s Outlook address entry only mentions that she works in IT. The italics and formatting have been copied as much as possible from the memo.

Read by Wednesday, March 30, 2005 5:00 AM.
This message was sent with High importance.
Sent: Wed 3/30/2005 3:48 PM
From: (name withheld)
To: (over 100 recipients)

All:

Beginning in April we will be starting a new environmental awareness initiative to eliminate the usage of styrofoam cups in both kitchen galleys. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,

“Each year Americans throw away 25,000,000,000 Styrofoam cups. Even 500 years from now, the foam coffee cup you used this morning will be sitting in a landfill.” http://www.epa.gov/reg3wcmd/solidwasterecyclingfacts.htm

As an alternative to styrofoam or other disposable cups, Halliburton coffee mugs will be supplied to everyone who would like one. To order a coffee mug please send me an email request by no later than Friday, April 1st. If however you have a favorite coffee/drinking cup you would like to bring from home please feel free to do so. Our intention is not to deprive anyone from drinking coffee, hot tea or hot chocolate but to encourage environmental awareness. If you have any thoughts or suggestions please feel free to share them.

As a final note there will be disposable coffee cups available in the kitchen for visitors so we kindly ask that you please avoid using them.

Thank you for your support in this effort.

(initials withheld)

We’ve never seen this person’s name before, and there is no indication that she is doing that on behalf of the facilities manager of our location. We also can’t figure out who is buying all of the Halliburton coffee mugs, or which mugs they are buying. I don’t want a small 8-oz. cup! If I don’t want the cup they provide, can I buy my own and expense it?

Comment from a co-worker: “Now we are going to have a health issue when we’re not able to properly clean the used mugs.” They’ll have to distribute cleaning agents, instructions, and detection agents for bacteria! That’s got to help the environment too.

Another co-worker has sent her a reply, “Enter your title in Outlook properties so we know who is sending orders please”.

Is this Halliburton’s first inside-job spam broadcaster?

Update, Mar. 31st, 11:20 am: The reply to my co-worker came back:

[recipient withheld]:

I’m sorry you took this as an “order”. This initiative was decided by senior management for our quadrant ([three names withheld] and several others ). I was not involved in that decision, I have just been asked to communicate the decision to the group.

Thanks,

[initials withheld]

I’m slightly embarrased to admit that I hadn’t heard of the three senior management names either. Two of the names both have the title of IT Director while the third name is an Accounting Director. Guess I’m still just a worker bee.