A recruiter learned an important lesson this week: always proofread offer emails before hitting send, especially when composing on your phone. Unfortunately, they learned this lesson approximately 30 seconds after sending an email where autocorrect changed "We'd love to extend an offer" to something so inappropriate that HR had to get involved.

The recruiter, who wishes to remain anonymous (for obvious reasons), was responding to a candidate while waiting for their coffee order. Quick email, just confirming they were preparing the official offer letter, should take 30 seconds. What could go wrong?

Everything. Everything Could Go Wrong.

The email was supposed to read: "Great to speak with you! We'd love to extend an offer and have you join our team. The formal paperwork will be sent over by end of day."

What autocorrect decided to send instead contained a phrase that would make a sailor blush, involved an activity that is definitely not in any employee handbook, and ended with "join our team" which, in this new context, sounded like an invitation to something that's probably illegal in 47 states.

The recruiter realized the error about 10 seconds after the sent email confirmation appeared, which was approximately 9 seconds too late to prevent absolute panic.

The Candidate's Response Was Not Helpful

To make matters significantly worse, the candidate thought it was intentional humor and responded with "LOL I love the culture already! When do I start?"

This created a new problem: does the recruiter acknowledge the error and make it weird, or just pretend it was intentional workplace banter and hope nobody ever speaks of it again? They chose option C: forward the entire email chain to their manager with the subject line "I am so sorry" and start updating their own resume.

The hiring manager, who apparently has a sense of humor, responded "well this is certainly the most memorable offer acceptance I've ever seen. Please send the ACTUAL offer letter now and let's never discuss this again."

HR Has Entered the Chat

Unfortunately, "never discuss this again" was not an option because the email was sent from the company domain and technically constituted official company communication. HR got involved to determine if this was a) a genuine autocorrect mistake, b) wildly inappropriate recruiter behavior, or c) the funniest thing that happened all year.

After a 45-minute meeting that the recruiter described as "the most embarrassing experience of my professional life," HR determined it was indeed autocorrect (they checked the recruiter's phone dictionary) and filed it under "incidents we'll be laughing about at the holiday party for the next decade."

The candidate did receive a proper offer letter, accepted the position, and reportedly has already requested their company email signature include their new title plus "autocorrect survivor."

The Moral of the Story

Disable autocorrect on your phone when sending professional emails. Or at least proofread. Or maybe just don't send important emails while waiting for your latte.

Also, if you're wondering what the autocorrect actually changed it to - nice try, but some things are too spicy even for us. Let's just say it involved a word that rhymes with "duck" but isn't "duck," and leave it at that.

The recruiter has since disabled autocorrect, started using their laptop for all important emails, and will probably have trust issues with their phone keyboard for the rest of their career.

On the bright side, the candidate is apparently thrilled about their new role and thinks the company has a "fun, relaxed culture." Mission accidentally accomplished?