An intern at HBO accidentally sent a mass email to a portion of the subscription service's subscribers, but then something surprising happened.
In life, mistakes and errors happen. It's a simple fact of life. As much as some people may try to be, perfection is not an attainable goal. People mess up at work, in the classroom and in relationships.
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However, while mistakes are often bad enough, the repercussions of those errors can be even worse. After a mistake, most fear that a supervisor, a parent or a teacher will come down on them with fire and fury. The fear of punishment can be crippling and debilitating.
But, when an intern at HBO mistakenly sent a blank test email to several of the streaming service's subscribers, the internet responded with kindness and care instead of mockery and derision.
The incident happened in June 2021 after several people received an email in their inbox from HBO with the subject line "Integration Test Email #1," according to Today.
The body of the email read, "This template is used by integration tests only." There was nothing else, but it was still confusing to those who received the message.
Then on Twitter, HBO confirmed that it was, in fact, an intern who sent out the odd email.
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HBO's post read, "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."
Twitter Users Respond With Messages of Kindness and Empathy For the Unnamed Intern
The sweet, kindhearted response from the streaming service was met with others mentioning times when they had messed up in the past.
The Microsoft Outlook Twitter account responded with kindness and a bit of humor.
"Dear Intern, we've all hit the send button before we should've. It happens to the best of us," the account wrote.
One man mentioned the time he sent an email with a very unfortunate typo on behalf of a client.
"I once sent an email on behalf of a client regarding a response to a report by the American Lung Association that autocorrected to the American Lunch Association," the message read.
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A third person added that they confused the words "nurture" and "neuter" in an email.
"Dear Intern, I once used the word neuter instead of nurture in respect to how a company would deal with its clients and I've been ok, you will be too. Good luck!"
Another person wrote, "Mistakes happen. Don't be hard on them. One lives and learns..."
The Twitter thread is filled with people recounting errors they've made in the past and encouraging the unnamed intern to keep their head up.
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Social media can be a mean and nasty place where it at times seems kindness goes to die. However, there are instances when people on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram respond with overwhelming kindness and love.
1 Peter 3:8 "Last of all, see that you are all in agreement; feeling for one another, loving one another like brothers, full of pity, without pride."
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. ❤️
- MaxHelp (@maxhelp) June 18, 2021
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h/t: Today, CBS News & Twitter.com/@MaxHelp
Featured Image Credit: Twitter/HBO | Unsplash/Mimi Thian