This is Caveman an interim employee at the company, and he was doing his best to keep it together. He had learned the ropes pretty quickly, but one thing still tripped him up: email. The company had a very specific system for communicating, and every single email seemed to be its own intricate maze of instructions, requests, and reminders.
On Wednesday, Caveman was given the task of sending an important email to a client. Simple, right? Well, Caveman hesitated. He sat at his desk staring at his computer, his fingers hovering over the keys. He stared at the blank screen, unsure of what to say or how to phrase it. He started typing a subject line, then deleted it. Typed it again. Deleted it again. After 30 minutes of overthinking, he abandoned the email entirely and decided to just walk to the printer to avoid making the decision. That was easier, right?
Later that day, he got his first email reminder.
Subject: Friendly Reminder: Please Send Client Email Today
From: Bik@company.com
Caveman blinked. “Okay, okay. I get it,” he muttered. He would send it. He promised. But still, he couldn’t help but feel the pressure mounting.
The next day, Caveman sat at his desk again. He tried to muster up some courage, but the blank email screen just mocked him. He opened up Google for AI inspiration, typed “How to write a professional email” and instantly found 15,000 guides. He started reading a few, each one more formal than the last, and suddenly, his email felt like it was going to require a book-length response. There was no way he was doing this.
The clock ticked by.
Ping! Another email came in.
Subject: Reminder: Email to Client Still Pending
From: Bik@company.com
Caveman’s heart sank. Not only was Bik following his every move, but the reminder felt uncomfortably specific. “Still Pending”?? He stared at the screen for a moment, feeling like a criminal being tracked.
At that point, Caveman had a small existential crisis. Why was sending an email so hard? Why did he feel like a toddler being reminded to tie his shoes?
Determined, he sat up straighter and started typing. “Dear colleagues…”
Five minutes later, he stopped, deleted the whole thing, and instead opened a blank Word document to write an outline of what the email might contain. Maybe if he wrote an outline first, the email would write itself! He got carried away and wrote the outline for five hours. Eventually, the outline became so detailed that it looked like he had written a full academic paper on client communication.
Ping! Another reminder.
Subject: URGENT: Action Required: Send Email Now
From: Bik@company.com
Okay, now it was starting to feel like a hostage situation. The emails were coming in faster than he could delete them.
Caveman felt like he had to act fast. He opened his draft email, typed “Dear Colleagues” and then froze. He couldn’t think of the rest.
At that point, he just hit “send.”
The email went out… without a subject line. It was just “Dear Client” with absolutely no content.
Ping!
Subject: Thank You for Your Email
From: Bik@company.com
It was the thank you email, confirming that he had sent the email. The cycle was never going to end.
But then, just as he was about to lose his mind, his boss walked by and patted him on the back.
“You sent that email to the client, right?” she asked casually.
“Yeah, of course,” Caveman said, grinning like a maniac. “Nailed it.”
“Good job,” she said, walking away. “Now, go check your inbox for my email reminding you to check your email.”
Caveman froze in horror.
Griniaris.com 
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