Recently, a co-worker mass e-mailed a ‘reminder’ about Internet usage. It reminded me how tricky e-mailing can be in an office environment. Workers can be easily singled out either by CCing one’s boss, mass e-mails highlighting one’s error before speaking to the person, or simply using e-mail as a way to make unprofessional statements. As young employees, it’s important to learn when an e-mail shifts from being helpful and efficient to useless and time consuming.
“We’ve become a trigger happy society where the send button is often hit way too soon, without pause and reflection,” says Certified Leadership Coach Cassandra L. Gierden.
She says the effect can almost become aggressive, like road rage over the Internet. While there are obvious forms where comments or threats are implied there are others that are more subtle and tricky.
“You may also want to notice if additional people are being added to the conversation, by being CC’d and maybe even secretly BCC’d, where they may have not been in the original conversation. If inappropriate to be adding them then this may be one sign your colleague has another agenda,” she says.
While searching for workplace resources on e-mail policies, I came across Emailreplies.com, which highlights basic rules to keep in mind while composing e-mails at work.
“Try not to use the CC: field unless the recipient in the CC: field knows why they are receiving a copy of the message. Using the CC: field can be confusing since the recipients might not know who is supposed to act on the message,” is written on the website. “In general, do not include the person in the CC: field unless you have a particular reason for wanting this person to see your response.”
Another common mistake is pressing the send button before reading it over grammar and spelling
“Apart from this, reading your e-mail through the eyes of the recipient will help you send a more effective message and avoid misunderstandings and inappropriate comments.”
What if you are the e-mail aggressor? Gierden suggests picking up the phone instead of writing out a venting e-mail.
“Recognize when this is what you are doing and stop before you shoot the e-mail off so to speak. Great alternatives? Save it in your draft folder for a few hours and review it later. Maybe you’ll modify it and send it anyways. Perhaps it’s lost its importance and already resolved itself before you added fuel to the fire, release it by deleting it,” she suggests.
Misunderstandings are common over e-mail since things are often ‘misread’ but boundaries should be respected.
“If boundaries are crossed inform and ask them to honour ‘the boundary’ with you. For example: ‘I don’t like people using foul language with me and I’d appreciate if when communicating with me that you refrain from this language.’”
Declaring your boundaries is important, however, using the phone or walking across the office to clarify is always best to diffuse a misunderstanding.
“Pick up the phone, walk across the office, buy a card and mail it to an old friend. Get back to the more basic, almost old fashion, community forms of communication,” says Gierden.
