If you got a weird email from HBO Max recently, you’re not alone.
On Thursday, the streaming service confirmed an email with the subject line “Integration Test Email #1” went out to a sizable portion of their subscriber base by mistake. Then, via its consumer service Twitter account, HBO Max actually blamed it on the intern, saying, “As the jokes pile in, yes, it was the intern. No, really. And we’re helping them through it.”
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. ❤️
— HBOMaxHelp (@HBOMaxHelp) June 18, 2021
That was funny enough on its own. But as initial concerns that the mass email was a phishing scam gave way to jokes about HBO Max content, a contingent of kind souls began reaching out directly to the intern supposedly responsible for the mishap. Now, Twitter users from across the globe are sharing their work horror stories with the mysterious employee, using #DearIntern to revel in their own embarrassment and offer what they learned from their cringe-worthy experiences.
Go look up the “Dear Intern” trend on Twitter. It’s people all admitting their mistakes and noting they’re still present/successful. It’s so heartwarming, and I wish society would look more kindly on mistakes in general. We’re all humans, not robots. Well, for now, anyway.
— Threatymology (@threatymology) June 18, 2021
“Dear Intern,” one user began. “As a young lawyer, I proof read a legal brief and filed it with the court. I caught a typo and blindly used the global find and replace function. Pro tip: don’t do that. My brief argued for the rights of ‘the panties.’ Not ‘the parties.’ All 50 pages of it.”
Dear Intern, as a young lawyer I proof read a legal brief and filed it with the court. I caught a typo and blindly used the global find and replace function. Pro tip: don’t do that. My brief argued for the rights of “the panties.” Not “the parties.” All 50 pages of it. 🤦🏻♀️🩲🩲 https://t.co/PDJYMXuOlw
— Suzanne Lovett (@sdtlovett) June 18, 2021
“Dear intern,” shared another. “I once sent out a 1-900 sex hotline as a conference call number for the Women’s National Democratic Club, the average age of membership was about 78. Shit happens.”
Dear intern,
I once sent out a 1-900 sex hotline as a conference call number for the Women’s National Democratic Club, the average age of membership was about 78.
Shit happens.
— Rae Pickett (@RaeRoca) June 18, 2021
Monica Lewinsky, arguably the most famous intern in American history, even weighed in, joking, “Dear intern: It gets better. P.S. Don’t wear a beret for awhile, k?”
dear intern:
it gets better.
♥️
ps. don’t wear a beret for awhile, k?
— Monica Lewinsky (she/her) (@MonicaLewinsky) June 18, 2021
You can read more of these wholesome #DearIntern stories below.
Dear Intern, I was using my desktop calendar to make a monthly note of when I started my menstrual period, but after several months I realized I was making that note on a calendar I shared with all of my colleagues company wide. I was 37 years old.
— Caissie (@Caissie) June 18, 2021
Dear Intern,
It’s an email. At least you didn’t erase the entire Community Access TV station’s chyron graphics archive on accident.
Signed,
A Broadcast Engineer who once erased all the chyron graphics at a Community Access TV Station by accident when he was an intern.— Mark ‘STAY HOME!’ Kewman (@mkewman) June 18, 2021
Dear Intern, when I was 25 I made a PDF assigning each employee to the Muppet they reminded me of the most. I meant to send it to my work friend, but I accidentally sent it to the entire company. My supervisor (Beaker) wanted to fire me, but the owners (Bert & Ernie) intervened. https://t.co/zMKvQ6nxjj
— aerin. (@AerinChevyFord) June 18, 2021
Dear intern: On one of my first days as an intern at CNN, I accidentally put an administrative folder containing thousands of scripts intended for shows all across the country in my desktop trashcan. The editors who helped me fix it are still some of my favorite people 💙 https://t.co/Cuy7IObpBG
— Alison Foreman (@alfaforeman) June 18, 2021
Dear intern,
It’s ok. I dropped a prod database when I was a senior engineer. These things happen more often than you might think. Building good systems is about having resilience against human mistakes. Because we, humans, always make mistakes.
— JBD ヤナ ドガン (@rakyll) June 18, 2021
Dear intern, I once sent an email to 5k employees asking them to update their benefits but I didn’t bcc them so hundreds of ppl hit reply all and then hundreds more hit reply all to tell others not to reply all and it crashed our whole system email system. https://t.co/gE8BBjtv7v
— Jenny Lawson (@TheBloggess) June 18, 2021
Dear Intern, as a very young copywriter I once had to write a brochure about a prescription drug that “reduces mortality in patients,” but it turns out I actually wrote that it “reduces morality in patients” and nobody caught it until 50,000 were printed.https://t.co/HrMqHIXhg0
— Eize Basa (@PonchoRebound) June 18, 2021
Dear intern, for the first two months of being admin we thought this was a rose emoji 🌷. So every D-Rose post had a tulip instead.
how far we’ve made it https://t.co/HkpjHNabJd
— Bulls Talk (@NBCSBulls) June 18, 2021
Dear intern,
I once globally took down Spotify. It almost happened twice. My team was awesome about it and I’m still here. You managed to find something broken in the way integration tests are done. It’s a good thing and will help improve things. Good luck <3.
— Daenney (@daenney) June 18, 2021
Dear Intern,
I once auto-populated a mass vet email from @morris_animal to list the constituents as their “dogs name” instead of their first name and it got the best email response ever. A mistake turned into a new marketing process when we sent mass emails.
— James Harper (@JHarperMedia) June 18, 2021
Dear intern,
During my first year of work at @rockthevote, I accidentally sent to 1.5M people, an email saying “don’t forget to vote in your election” with info about a VERY niche election in Florida that only had like, maybe 2K people voting in it.
You got this. https://t.co/QHCNxfOVis
— Kosoko Jackson (@KosokoJackson) June 18, 2021
Dear intern, I worked my way through college as an intern in the Vice President’s office of a major university. My first week on the job, I accidentally hung up on the President of the university. Twice.
— Four Martens (@fourmartens) June 18, 2021
Dear Intern,
I once didn’t recognize then-VP George HW Bush and almost didn’t let him into a meeting…in the Cabinet Room. Of The White House. Where he worked. 🤷🏼♀️
He was actually as gracious as HBO Max Help appears to be being…you’ll be fine.— ͏Postcards4USA (@postcards4USA) June 18, 2021