Obey the commandments of corporate survival

How this MyRagan blogger responded to an icy phone call from the legal department

I got a call from one of our esteemed corporate legal team members the other day.

After crisply announcing herself (lawyers always seem to speak crisply; is there a crisp-speaking course they take in law school?), she put me on speaker phone. In her office were my department director and department VP, and they all wanted to know why I had not sent out a certain legally mandated e-mail to a whole bunch of people.

Oh my.

It turns out there had been complaints from some employees that some had received it and others hadn’t.

“We would like to know the process you followed,” said my VP icily. “Because this is a screw up. And there are legal ramifications.”

Oh my, my, my.

Thank heavens that (seeming) eons of working here had taught me the First and Second Commandments of Corporate Survival:

1. Cover thy ass.

2. Document that thy ass is covered.