Sales manager embarrasses himself while on the phone with a long-time client by accidentally saying “I love you,” they all laugh it off, but HR still gives him 2 write-ups: ‘Basically had to convince them not to fire me’

How many times have you put your foot in your mouth during a work call? 

Sometimes we are just too stressed or too sleepy to take good care of our words. So, there might be some communication mess-ups at work from time to time. Of course, we never intend to offend anyone or be disrespectful, but we're still only human. We make mistakes when we talk all the time. 

Redditor u/Sad-Supermarket-3878 unfortunately misspoke while on the phone with a female client. He was in the car with his wife going to the gym early in the morning and half asleep. Then he got an urgent call with this client. After the chat ended, he just so happened to also be in the middle of saying goodbye to his wife and accidentally said, "I love you" to his client. Both the client and his wife laughed it off and made fun of him, so all's well that ends well. However, the call was recorded and audited, and the HR department was not so happy about it.

If you're gonna stumble over your words every now and then, I think it's a lovely thing that the first thing that comes out of your mouth is an expression of endearment. It means that you're lucky, you have love in your life, and you acknowledge that often enough to say it without a second thought. It would have been way worse if he had said something bad or something insulting. Granted, HR needs to take care of the company's integrity; that's their priority, but still, it could have definitely been worse. All in all, it's not the mistake of the year, just a silly anecdote to tell over family gatherings, and HR is out of line for those write-ups!