Today I decided to look up someone I had corresponded with a few times by email. He is an English expat who was already working for my new employer. He’d given me lots of useful advice which helped me through the recruitment process. I had never met him in person.

I asked the reception staff where I could find John Bull… that’s his name… thirteenth floor I was told. I got the lift and went to his office. I asked the guy behind the desk if he was John Bull. He said was.

He wasn’t quite what I was expecting… slightly older and with a distinct foreign accent. I said who I was and reminded him that he’d been very helpful when he emailed me information plus a few other reasons why he should remember me. He looked slightly nonplussed but then nodded as if it was all coming back to him. We had a brief conversation, I said my goodbyes.

But something was definately wrong. So I double checked the office listings… he wasn’t John Bull, he was Jean Paul, hence the accent.I decided it was perhaps best to email him and admit the error, so at least he didn’t think he was losing his memory. Now I still have to find the real John Bull.