Tuesday 23 October 2012

Email Etiquette....

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Email Etiquette: Don't Send The Wrong Emails!

The way people communicate has radically changed over the years. Email has become one of the most used medium because of obvious advantages it provides to the people. Email is the easiest, fastest, yet considerably the cheapest to send your messages to your loved ones, friends, and associates. Everyday, emails are being sent to millions of people around the world. Everybody is forwarding email messages, including unnecessary ones, and people have become so used it that proper etiquette has been neglected causing discomfort to other people.

One perfect example of violation against email etiquette happens at the office. In fact, most of the unnecessary forwarded email messages are coming from employees and happening during office hours. Unless your office environment does not mind, this can be punishable and can even mean termination if found guilty. Hence, it is advised that employees are more careful when sending emails to avoid the trouble.

Conversely, you have to be aware of the following tips when sending email messages and stop unnecessary harm.

Reply Only To the Right Email Address/es

It happens to you once, twice, or maybe even more? Again, in an office scenario: you and the rest of your officemates received an email from your boss indicating an apology because of some incompetence in his part. Maybe you have quite an ill-feeling towards the boss, so you pored over his email and then proceeded to comment and send it out to other co-workers.

Suddenly, it happened. In a hurry and carelessness, you have sent it out to the group and you did not forget deleting your boss' email address from the group list. You didn't realize it until he calls you to inform he is not happy about what you did. You know what happens next, don't you?

Next time, remember this thing: double check the names in the list before hitting the send button.

Brief Replies

People are always busy, especially when they are at work. Because of this, they often cannot appreciate long email messages that these end up unread or if read, unfinished. Avoid this by creating short email replies but be sure that it contains relevant data as asked. Be careful when being short with your replies though. A single or few words is a brief, curt message that often means non-committal on your part or is simply plain; thus, may connote a negative effect on the reader.

Spare the Sarcasm

Not all people see sarcasm in the same way. It can be seen by other people as funny, entertaining one, but to some others, it can be offensive. And the worst place to put sarcasm is in your email message. Remember that email is a non-verbal communication; therefore, the recipient has no inkling what your facial expression when you were typing the email and misinterprets the tone of your message. 

Next time that you intend to convey laughter, save it during one of your verbal communications.

Keep It in Small Caps

You know how big caps, or upper case, mean in email messages, and even in text messages. They mean fighting, conveying, and yelling. So, save the big caps for the first letters of the sentences if you don't want the recipient of your email to misconstrue the true meaning of the message. The rest, keep it in lower case.

And, next time that you are typing that email? Leave the Caps unlocked.

If you have been doing it the wrong way all this time, be sure to remember the above etiquette tips to avoid harm not only to the recipients but to you as well.

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