As an Exchange Support Engineer, I dread the onset of any virus that will affect our customers. However, given that my name is Melissa, this virus was particularly painful for me! Imagine answering a support call during this outbreak “Thank you for calling Microsoft Exchange Support, this is Melissa” only to hear a deafening ‘click’ on the other end. A more typical response to my greeting was an awkward silence followed by “You’re kidding, right?” For a time, I seriously considered using Missy or even Mel when answering calls at work.
A lot of customers would tease me that I was the Melissa that spurned the guy that started all of this. But I was ok with it, hey if people needed someone to blame, I’m a big girl, I can take it.
Of course my co-workers couldn’t resist taking advantage of a ripe situation. They creatively decorated my cube with yellow police tape and assorted anti-virus CDs. But it was all in fun and I kept my sense of humor about it. It started to get a little extreme though when some of my emails would bounce back because of my name on the From line.
Alas the Melissa virus is now a distant memory. However to this day, I have a former colleague who still refers to me only as “Virus”. Since he left Dove dark chocolate nuggets on my keyboard every morning, I am willing to overlook it. He actually left chocolates for all the women on our team. Truly this is a man who knows what women really want! So I think it’s only fair to dedicate this blog entry to my “Dove fairy” Edwah, from “Virus”. I miss you buddy!
- Melissa Travers
