WOODBURY — Imagine sitting in a meeting and getting a group email. You type up a response and hit send. Almost instantaneously you get an email from yourself – and you realize that you replied all.
After living through that very experience, Nonnewaug biology teacher Toby Denman still remembers this moment as one of his worst.
“I was rightfully and justifiably embarrassed, ashamed and mortified by my own behavior,” said Denman.
After Denman spent some time dwelling on what he did, he decided to come up with some kind of physical display that he could wear – not only for him, but for any other teacher after him that would make the same mistake.
“I decided that I would willfully embarrass myself for the benefit of others to bring awareness to the issue of replying all,” Denman says.
He wanted something people could wear that was eye-catching.
“Initially I was thinking about some sort of bedazzled chain,” said Denman, “or something that brought attention to whoever was wearing it.”
After an unsuccessful search for something bedazzled, Denman had to think more creatively.
“I was looking around and thought, it’s kind of a turkey move to reply all,” said Denman. “So then I started to wonder if there were any turkey dog toys.”
Once he had his idea set, all he needed to do was find a turkey.
“I found the dog toy section at Marshall’s, and I’m looking around and there weren’t any actual turkeys,” shared Denman. “So I found this dog toy chicken and thought, ‘This might have to do.’”
The only thing left to do was assemble the new reply-all turkey and wait for someone else to reply all.
One-time recipient Deborah Flaherty, Nonnewaug’s library media specialist, said receiving the turkey once will assist her in remembering to reply separately.
“I think that it actually helps me because the last time that I earned it I didn’t even know that I had replied all,” said Flaherty.
Even though the turkey is supposed to have an embarrassing connotation to it, Flaherty didn’t mind wearing it and even tried to make it more entertaining.
“To make it extra fun, I color coordinated with the turkey wearing dark khaki pants and a red sweater. I wore it the whole day,” says Flaherty.
Many other staff members have since received the turkey, and it will remain to be seen if this object will decrease the amount of people replying all.
