It’s The Little Things…

When it comes to commas in a list of three or more things…say “pay attention, add value, and have fun”…some of you use what is referred to as the Oxford Comma, the one before “and” (or “or”), and others don’t. Believe it or not, there are people who are passionate in their views about that comma or the lack thereof. I imagine many of you are thinking, “A comma? Who cares?” Oakhurst Dairy probably wishes that the state of Maine cared…

In a recent court case, three truck drivers sued Oakhurst for overtime pay they claimed they were denied. The Maine state law at issue says overtime rules do not apply in “the canning, processing, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of…” The case turned on the meaning of “packing for shipment or distribution of.”

Is the “distribution of”’ exempt or is the “packing for shipment or distribution” exempt? Or both? Since the drivers don’t pack but do distribute, the meaning was critical to the validity of their claim for denied overtime.

To the drivers’ delight and the company’s dismay, the United States Court of Appeals for the First District ruled that the lack of a comma created enough ambiguity to rule in the drivers’ favor. Amount of overtime pay in dispute? About $10 million dollars.

In another situation, this one involving a typo, Nigel Lang found himself wrongfully arrested by the South Yorkshire police for sharing indecent images of children. After three weeks, the mistake was cleared up but six years later Lang is still suffering post-traumatic stress and is unable to work.

Lang was a social worker in England helping young people combat substance abuse. Just imagine the impact his arrest for this heinous crime had on him as he tried to protest his innocence. It took him over a year to find out why he was arrested since the police refused to share any information. When his attorney finally received this information, he discovered that they had arrested the wrong person due to an extra digit typed into an IP address.

I see typos and sloppy writing all the time. We all do. The ease of sending off emails, tweets, and texts has led to us becoming comfortable with misspellings, bad grammar, unclear verbiage, and easily misunderstood abbreviations.

In personal communications, I suppose writing mistakes don’t matter that much. But if we aren’t careful with personal correspondence, we’ll also become lazy with business communications, where even little mistakes can matter a great deal.

The two stories above show the results that can occur from the lack of a single comma or the insertion of a single digit. Little mistakes can have great consequences.

A single misplaced word, a thoughtless comment to a co-worker, an irritated look at an indecisive prospect, a rushed text to a reporter and next thing you know things aren’t going as well as you hoped. And there’s a good chance you’ll never know why.

Ignore the little things at your peril.