Errant sick-day email quickly goes viral
Reporter on medication accidentally hit ‘reply-all’ leading to hilarity
Company-wide emails are a dangerous thing, irking cubicle dwellers everywhere who grit their teeth whenever use of the “reply-all” button gets out of hand and a stream of unnecessary messages slams their inboxes.
But when a television reporter in Kansas City, Mo., on Thursday accidentally emailed every employee of his company’s nearly 200 stations to call in sick, thousands of emails and tweets — and even a few pints of chicken soup — came flooding back. Nexstar Media Group employees across the country responded to Nick Vasos’ message with sympathy, hilarity and some lighthearted ribbing of the traffic reporter’s mistake, causing #PrayersforNick to trend on Twitter across the country.
“How do you bring together staffers across America’s largest local TV station owner?” wrote Ted Nesi, an editor and reporter at WPRI 12 in Rhode Island. “Accidentally blast your sickcall email to the entire company.”
“And to think earlier this week, he was so happy to try Casey’s pizza. I long for the simple days,” joked Abby Eden, who works with Vasos as an anchor at Fox 4 Kansas City. “I am one of @NickVasos’ managers,” wrote Jana Calkins, an assistant news director at Fox 4. “Grateful to report he and I have communicated and he is going to pull through. You guys are a scream!”
Some of Vasos’s colleagues even set up a mock memorial for him, complete with white candles, his framed headshot, a stuffed Snoopy doll and a bobblehead of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
Vasos spoke by phone with his colleagues at Fox 4 to explain how he accidentally emailed the entire company, ushering in the nightmare of workers everywhere. It started, he said, with getting oral surgery on Thursday, which required him to fast and abstain from water for seven hours.
He said he didn’t drink water when he got home, either, so he started feeling wobbly when he took his medication.
Vasos sent a text message to his manager to tell her he wasn’t feeling well, but he said he didn’t hear back.
“So I went to the email,” he said, “which was a mistake.”
Before a recent switch in company email addresses, Vasos said he used to be able to reach his manager by emailing an address that started with “news@”. So he typed those same letters into his email without noticing that it defaulted to a different address.
“I don’t think I realized that I was sending it to all of Nexstar, and I hit ‘send,’ ” Vasos said. “And that’s where we are today.”
As #PrayersforNick took on a life of its own, with strangers across the country sending their well wishes and medical advice.
Vasos took his 15 minutes of fame in stride.
“Attention #NexstarNation,” he tweeted. “Take it from me, when calling sick don’t email news@Nexstar.tv You’re welcome. #PrayersForNick Now time to rest. Good night.”
Vasos also jokingly tweeted an apology to fans of Nicolas Cage, Nick Jonas and a host of other famous Nicks who may have started their day in a panic when they saw #PrayersforNick trending nationwide.
Nexstar TV station 8 News Now invited Vasos to visit them in Las Vegas after he made a full recovery.
“I accept,” Vasos replied, “when I’m better.”