Gauri Chhabra
Last Diwali, my colleague received an email with a sign-off that was so strange, it has stuck in his mind for the last year. It came from Meenakshi Sharma who works in digital programming center at Chandigarh. Below her title and above her cell phone number was this mystifying quote: “The Bird is equal to or greater than the Word,” attributed to someone named, simply, “scientist.”
With this and other strange habits that I encounter in the mails that I receive everyday, I thought of penning down some habits to avoid:
All Lower case
Avoid subject lines that are in all caps, all lower case, and those that include URLs and exclamation points.Perception: You tend to look like Spam to the recipient. With inboxes being clogged by hundreds of e-mails a day, it’s crucial that your subject line gets to the point. It should be reasonably simple and descriptive of what you have written about. Expect that any e-mail with a cute, vague, or obscure subject will get trashed. Also, proof your subject line as carefully as you would proof the rest of the e-mail.
All Caps
Caps Locked e mail tantamount to a screaming mail. It is like you are trying to get your point across and ensure the other person knows that you mean business. Caps=”this is a message that I am stressing.”Perception: Whoa. Caps-locked emails scream at you from your screen. It’s amazing how capital letters can seem so forceful, so arrogant, so-mean. The same should be pointed out for excessive punctuation. Follow AP style: use sparingly; one exclamation point is always, always enough.Otherwise, you risk looking childish and unprofessional.
Answering the Wrong Question
Intention: When a colleague on a group email answers questions that are under your purview before you have a chance to. He’s saving his colleague the hassle of answering-hey, he knows the answer too! Perception: It’s the online version of shouting out the answer
without raising your hand. His colleague might think that he is undermining their authority or worse-out to get their job.
The “Always CC Me” Request
Intention:As a boss, when you tell your subordinate to always cc you, you may be hoping to avoid any problems from slipping through the cracks by being aware of all activity and correspondence. Perception: You are a controlling micro-manager who doesn’t trust her employees. Why did you hire them in the first place?
Copy editing
Intention:When you copy edit an email, you want to ensure that the higher ups see a clean, well-spoken document. By editing your coworker’s email and resending it, you ensure that the grammatically correct email goes in the supervisor’s inbox. Perception: Public shaming of a colleague is never going to get you anywhere. Both the colleague and the supervisor are made aware of this one-upmanship. And neither of them like it.
CC’ing Up
Intention: When you’re having an email exchange with a co-worker, and he escalates the conflict by sneakily CCing a higher-up. He’s resolving the issue efficiently by letting a higher-up in on the conflict.Perception: He’s sneaky, conniving and out to make them look bad. Even more nefarious is the BCC .
Instant Follow Up
Intention:You want to make sure you’ve received and read his email-calling or emailing right away seems like the logical way to find out. Perception: Give me a break! If you expect an instant response to a query, the more efficient route is to pick up the phone. Following up shortly after sending an email makes you seem impatient and self-righteous.
Over-use of the Priority Flag
Intention: Read my email! Perception: When a colleague uses the high priority marker for all emails-particularly those without an impending deadline or expiration date, it sends a “boy who cried wolf” message to coworkers. Meaning the chances your emails are getting read are worse, not better.
The Preemptive Auto Response: “I’m very busy and important. But I’ll get back to you as soon as I can!”
Intention: By setting an auto response to every email you receive, you are buying time-while reassuring the other person you do care about his email and will respond at a convenient time. Perception: You are taken to be condescending.
Reusing an Old Email Chain
Intention:You want to make it easy for the recipient to keep all correspondence from you in one place. Rather than begin a new email chain, you just keep using an old one so you can find it by her name. Perception:You appear to be lazy, disorganized or possess poor email sorting habits yourself. Start a new email chain with the appropriate subject line every time a new issue is being discussed.
No more than two attachments, and provide a logical name.
Intention: When you decide to place everything you need to send in a series of attachmentsyou intend to put as they say everything at one place.Perception: You appear cluttered and unorganized. Unless it’s been specifically requested, refrain from sending a message with more than two attachments. Also, give the attached file(s) a logical name so the recipient knows at a glance the subject and the sender.
Signing Off
If you use quotes while signing off, your intention may be to show that you are well read and learned.
Perception: The perception of the recipient is that you are boastful. Moreover, if your email message is short, it draws the eye away from the message.
Similarly, include your title and contact info, but keep it short. In most business emails, you’re doing the person a favor by sharing your vital information. But make it minimal.
An email is a marriage between a letter and an instant message. So, it is imperative that you observe certain etiquettes while writing the mail so that the message goes instantaneous yet maintains its sanctity.
Beware of the “reply all:
“Do not hit “reply all” unless every member on the e-mail chain needs to know. You want to make sure that you are not sending everyone on a list your answer-whether they needed to know or not.
The final word:
Remember,your e-mail is a reflection of you. Every e-mail you send adds to, or detracts from your reputation. If your e-mail is scattered, disorganized, and filled with mistakes, the recipient will be inclined to think of you as a scattered, careless, and disorganized businessperson. Other people’s opinions matter and in the professional world, their perception of you will be critical to your success.
So, next time you hit the send button, be very careful for the image you are projecting to others as your mail sits in others’ inboxes…
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