WOODBURY— Few could have anticipated that the following email chain could have the most serious of consequences:
7:23 AM – Good morning, yesterday someone seemed to have taken my laptop charger out of my classroom and it is now missing, if you happen to see that you have gained an extra charger in your classroom please let me know, thank you.
10:23 AM – Charger was located, thank you!
Some wear it with pride, some don’t even wear it, but for others it’s a debate on whether they should be wearing it at all.
That was the case this fall semester when Joshua Kornblut earned the unenviable prize of the Reply-All Turkey for letting the whole NHS DL know about his missing computer charger.
“My personal work laptop charger was missing, and it was missing for an extended period of time,” Kornblut remembers. “It was not returned and I didn’t know where it went or who took it, so I sent out an email to the NHS DL so everyone that works here got an email saying that my charger was missing and if anyone comes across one and they’re not sure where it came from, it could be mine.”
Later that day the charger had been located, and instead of just moving on Kornblut decided to send an additional email.
“After I found it, more than one teacher came up to me and ask ‘hey is this your charger’ one even during class, but I already found it so I said thank you but I already have it, so I think it was after the third teacher came to me, I figured I might as well let people know I found it so they would stop being concerned or taking time out of their day to ask about the charger I already found,” Kornblut ruefully recalls. “So I sent a reply-all to my email stating that it was found, thank you all, all the best, and I was told that this was a turkey offense.”
Toby Denman, Nonnewaug science teacher and the founder of the Reply- All Turkey was quick to assign Kornblut the rightful, albeit temporary, prize of the humiliating Reply-All Turkey.
“The overwhelming majority thought that it was okay that he sent out the initial email about his charger being missing,” Denman noted regarding Kornblut’s first offense. “But very few people felt that the rest of their day or weekend would have been affected by the knowledge that his charger has been returned, and while it sounds like there were some caring colleagues that went out of their way to ask him about his charger I’m willing to bet that the overwhelming majority of the faculty and central office and cafeteria workers were not impacted at all in the course of the day about the whereabouts of Mr. K’s computer charger.”
Kornblut wasn’t alone with being shamed with the turkey as NHS library media specialist Deborah Flaherty knows all too well with the experience of being ‘honored’ with the turkey.
“I didn’t even know it existed so I was coming from a place where reply-all was common and the first time I got it I don’t think I meant to reply all,” Flaherty said. “But I certainly wasn’t as careful about it as I am now knowing that the turkey will be waiting for me if I reply to everybody.”
For NHS faculty, staff, and administration who are all prisoners to the reply-all chain, watching instances like Kornblut’s faux pas was nothing short of cringey.
“I could understand the first email asking for it, even though that’s kind of weird, and then to tell everyone you found it, I mean I think that just went too far,” said Principal Mykal Kuslis ironically. “I think he definitely crossed the line when he sent the second one, especially for something like a chromebook charger.”
While Kornblut’s boss may see the humor in the situation, the honor–or dishonor–of the turkey is something that NHS faculty remain wary of.
“I would first like to go on the record and say that I accepted the turkey and I wore it proudly however I do not think it was deserving,” Kornblut said. “I think that the lesson that I learned was, do right by Mr. Denman and all will be right with the world.”
