Scrapping out a liveing

Have I ranted on this before? I'm sure I have. No matter, I'm going to do it again.

Subject: Business Typos

A few days ago, someone in the office at work (meaning someone who makes more money than I do, and supposedly has education and experience befitting her position) typed out a memo for all employees. She left a copy next to the mailboxes. I read it and cringed. We're doing inventory right now, and we cannot move or throw out (scrap) any items until they have been counted. In large, bold letters, her flyer said "NO MOVING, NO SCRAPING!"
Scraping. NOT scrapping. Her demand sounded more like a grade-school teacher's classroom admonition on test day. "Scrappage" and its variants are (unfortunately, from a business standpoint) some of the most commonly-used words at my workplace. The back of my company hat says "Goal: 0% SCRAP." (Hey, it was free!) And yet, nobody else caught the typo until the memo was plastered on every flat surface in all three plants. It is seriously bugging me.

Typos drive me crazy. Not so much on internet forums, blogs, chat, etc. where a more conversational tone is accepted by most and acronyms, abbreviations and "txt spk" are the norm. I don't follow strict writing criteria here and I don't expect anyone else to. I'll end sentences with prepositions, use too many commas and pauses, and write using colloquialisms or current slang. However, even taking liberties such as those, I hate misspelling a word. I hate it more in the following circumstances:

If I see an official release on company letterhead or browse a business website, and there are glaring typos, something in me just clicks and sets me off. Sometimes I cannot read past the error. (I do this with published novels too, as does my mom. A typo just derails the train of mental engagement with the story.) My own company has issued quarterly reports, public notices, and so forth with typos that make me want to demand proof of educational credentials from the higher-ups who wrote said letters. Or at the least, volunteer to proofread important documents for them. I find it very unprofessional to have misspelled words on job applications, company descriptions, mission statements, and employee handbooks, among other things. How does that project a good image? In my opinion, it doesn't. It projects slackness, disinterest, and lower education, none of which I want to see from the managers/owners of a potential employer or investment opportunity.

I went to a website not long ago for a product I was researching. I didn't get past the main page of the website. The product description had no less than three misspelled words and the company info was wrong (commas in the wrong place and some proper words not capitalized). This was supposed to be a million-dollar business. You'd think, with such a slick web design that obviously set the advertising budget back a few dollars, someone would have proofread the content. I can't be the only one out there who immediately loses interest in purchasing anything from a company that can't even spell their own product name the same way on the same page! Ugh.

I just can't get past this, I really can't. I've started carrying a black marker around with me at work and changing all the scraping to scrapping. Also leaving commentary: "We can't scrape?" "Scrape what?" "We all scrape by. Is this no longer allowed?" "Pay me more and I won't have to scrape." etc. etc. ad nauseaum... I'm an ass. :-D