People Show Support for Interns After HBO Max Email Snafu

A nameless intern at HBO Max earned support online after the company essentially threw them under the bus for an e-mail snafu that occurred last week.

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Image via Getty

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A nameless intern at HBO Max rallied Twitter’s support on Saturday, after the company tried to blame them for an email snafu that occurred last week.

“We mistakenly sent out an empty test email to a portion of our HBO Max mailing list this evening,” the company tweeted on Thursday. “We apologize for the inconvenience, and as the jokes pile in, yes, it was the intern. No, really. And we’re helping them through it.”

People quickly rallied to the intern’s defense, penning their own job mistakes or horrendous interning experiences in a show of solidarity. Some Twitter users recalled hilarious examples like accidentally changing everyone’s last name in the company database, or accidentally powering off every device during an experiment at MIT. Even celebrities like Monica Lewinsky chimed in. “Dear intern,” she wrote. “It gets better. Ps don’t wear a beret for awhile, k?”

The email in question went viral last week after multiple HBO Max subscribers posted screenshots of it on social media. “Integration Test Email #1,” the subject line read. “This template is used by integration tests only.” The email spawned memes online and theories as to what could have happened. With that said, many were actually relieved to hear the snafu was caused by an intern. “You are my hero,” wrote one person on Twitter. “Thank you for reminding us there is a human side behind these massive companies. Signed, the human side of Apple.”

Check out some of the best stories and tweets below.

Dear Intern, I was using my desktop calendar to make a monthly note of when I started my menstrual period, but after several months I realized I was making that note on a calendar I shared with all of my colleagues company wide. I was 37 years old.

— Caissie (@Caissie) June 18, 2021

Dear intern,

I once globally took down Spotify. It almost happened twice. My team was awesome about it and I'm still here. You managed to find something broken in the way integration tests are done. It's a good thing and will help improve things. Good luck <3.

— Daenney (@daenney) June 18, 2021

Dear intern,

My first FT gig as a FE was @Wayfair where my first deploy to production code was to create a shimmering animation for the Sale menu item. But there was a naming collision for the keyframe animation that I wasn't aware of...

Recreated it below.

It happens :) pic.twitter.com/6L9hUJ8ae4

— Ali Rehmatullah (@Ali_Rehmatullah) June 18, 2021

To the intern:

Hi! 🙋🏿‍♂️
I'm an Engineering Director on Google Play. Our team's systems send the emails for the Play Store.

1. You'll be fine! As replies show, everyone breaks production!

2. Congratulations on helping your team find missing guardrail features and capabilities!👍🏿

— Mekka 💉x4 @mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io (@mekkaokerekebye) June 18, 2021

Dear Intern, when I was 25 I made a PDF assigning each employee to the Muppet they reminded me of the most. I meant to send it to my work friend, but I accidentally sent it to the entire company. My supervisor (Beaker) wanted to fire me, but the owners (Bert & Ernie) intervened. https://t.co/zMKvQ6nxjj

— aerin (@AerinChevyFord) June 18, 2021

Dear Intern,

In the first month of my new HR job with a major defense contractor, I sent out an email about shirt orders that included the division president and several corporate leaders.

Title of email: Your Shit is in the HR Office - Please Pick Up by COB

— Hannah Holloway (@hholloway2010) June 18, 2021

i don't care if this happens to an intern

i do care how a company responds when their intern does something like this

so i do want to see this intern come out of this with a good story about how a company supported them through a mistake 🙌

— alts @lou@jawns.club or louh@cohost (@saikofish) June 18, 2021

Dear Intern,

I once auto-populated a mass vet email from @morris_animal to list the constituents as their “dogs name” instead of their first name and it got the best email response ever. A mistake turned into a new marketing process when we sent mass emails.

— James Harper (@JHarperMedia) June 18, 2021

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