1

A couple of weeks ago I met a highly respected person in my field working in a C-suite position, during the smoking time outside, we chatted a bit, and he was interested in what do I have to offer, so we agreed on keeping in touch.

A few days ago I received an email from him inviting me for lunch, we exchanged few emails, he was replying quickly and everything was on the right track. until one reply I sent that cutted the flow.

Reading my email again, I saw that I did quit some mistakes:

  1. in the greeting I went for "hey" without mentioning his name or anything else.
  2. No sign-off whatsoever (really bad)
  3. last, basically I misread his email, so my reply was reversed, exmple: him: "if available, then at 8, if not, then at 10" me: "I'm available, 10 would be good for me".

I sent an email after few hours (about 10pm), asking him to excuse me to misreading his email, and I corrected my response "excuse me, I'm available at 8, would be great meeting you again... etc.", but this email went without reply.

Now I feel that I communicated disrespect/rudeness or abruptness; something like: "I don't have time to write you a proper email", which is not my intention, and I don't know how to fix it anymore.

Improve this question
2
  • Is this chief officer someone at your office? Can't you just confront him and apologize in person? Or are you able to call him? I don't see any indication of rudeness but I do see some casual behavior.
    – user82352
    May 31, 2019 at 16:37
  • 1
    @KingDuken, no I don't work for them. and calling him to apologize may be a "too much" act - I believe, especially if he percieved my email as just a casual behavior. thank you anyways
    – David
    May 31, 2019 at 17:59

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
5

All you can do is wait for a response. I don't see anything disrespectful in that exchange, and it was a good thing that you sent a followup clarification.

  1. If he's a "highly respected person in the field", I'm willing to bet he's simply a busy guy. Maybe he has a fire to put out and has't had a chance to respond.

  2. If he's that sensitive to a miscommunication, then you likely wouldn't get along very well with him and he'd likely storm out of the restaurant in anger when you innocently mispronounced an item on a menu or didn't hold the chopsticks correctly or something.

Bottom line is, and don't take this the wrong way, but don't act like a smitten 14 year old girl wondering why little Johnny isn't calling her. If this guy is reasonable and wants to meet with you, you'll hear from him.

Improve this answer
7
  • It may be what you said, and it's just my anxiety kicking in. My thought was that my slightly inappropriate response would indicate something like: "I don't have time to write you a proper email" or something similiar, and that can be percieved as rude or abrupt. Anyways, It's always valuabe to get an outer perspective, thank you for giving yours!
    – David
    May 31, 2019 at 18:12
  • 2
    I would have upvoted this answer, but then I saw the 14 year old part. Really? Is this your usual way of giving advice?
    – Helen
    May 31, 2019 at 18:31
  • It made a point. Act like an adult. Be professional.
    – Keith
    May 31, 2019 at 18:52
  • @Keith well, I think I'm "acting" like an adult here, just asking for an extra thoughts; and my concerns are legit based on the reasoning I made.
    – David
    May 31, 2019 at 19:08
  • 1
    Don't think too much into it. Good grief.
    – Keith
    May 31, 2019 at 19:20

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .