The E-mail Curmudgeon, Part II
Last summer, I wrote a column headlined, “The E-mail Curmudgeon.” In it, I reviewed my top e-mail pet peeves, which included people who don’t use subject lines and people who use goofy fonts. For the complete column, search “curmudgeon” at WBJournal.com and you should find it.
Well, six months have passed since I wrote that column and my stockpile of fresh e-mail pet peeves has been collecting. Rather than keeping these to myself, I thought I’d get these off my chest. Enjoy!
The Drive-by E-mail
You’re working really hard. You’ve got seven different projects going on all at the same time and your phone is ringing off the hook. You’re stressed, but you’re handling things just fine.
Fine until the drive-by e-mail lands in your inbox.
What is a drive-by e-mail, you ask? It’s one of those out-of-the-blue missives from a superior that rips you out of your work groove and immediately sends you into a panic. Here’s an example of such an e-mail I might receive from my boss:
Christina,
Remember that news story I asked you to look into three years ago? Whatever happened with that? It was a pretty big deal. I expect a full report complete with PowerPoint in 20 minutes.
I find that bosses are constant offenders when it comes to drive-by e-mails. Somehow when you get to management you forget the impact that your words (either spoken or typed) have on people. If you have a team reporting to you, do them and yourself a favor, and think before you send a drive-by. If you want to create a stir, go right ahead. But if not, you should take a softer approach in the e-mail, or better yet, a face-to-face conversation.
Ignoring The Question
I pride myself on writing very clear and concise e-mails. Sometimes I can get a little verbose, but generally I try to keep things to the point. But despite my best efforts there are always people who seem to miss the entire purpose of the e-mails I send. Am I the only one who’s sent an e-mail with a very clear question in bold that ends up being ignored? Or better yet, sometimes people answer an entirely different question. I don’t get that. I realize that we’re all busy, but if you’re going to take the time to respond to an e-mail, you should make sure you’re answering the correct question.
Sent From My…
With the proliferation of smartphones like the BlackBerry and the iPhone, we’ve also seen a proliferation of those little taglines at the end of e-mails that say things like, “Forgive my typos. This was sent from my $300 smartphone!” I find these messages incredibly annoying and just a little pretentious. I don’t need to know where your message was sent from. And I don’t know why you’d want to give a free commercial to your cellphone maker every time you click send. Truth be told, I think most people don’t know how to remove these taglines, so they stay. If you’ve got one of these, check the settings on your phone and you should be able to delete it. If you’re not going to delete, at least be a little creative, like this: “Sent from my from my smartphone because I never work in the office anymore because they don’t turn up the heat and this winter has been terrible.”
That would at least get a few laughs.
The Unanswered E-mail
Ever ask for feedback via e-mail and never hear back? Ever wonder where those e-mails go? Maybe they collect with all the missing left socks that mysteriously disappear from our dryers. I get that our inboxes are overwhelmed. But you need to develop a system. For example, I double click on any e-mail that I receive that needs follow-up that I’m not prepared to respond to right away. Then, before the end of the day, I go through all those opened e-mails and craft my replies. Those e-mails that I don’t get to (or don’t want to get to) are marked as unread so that I know it’s still awaiting my attention. If that system doesn’t work for you, come up with your own. But not answering too many e-mails, especially from your colleagues, is bound to cause you grief in the long run.
Got news for our Digital Diva column? E-mail Christina H. Davis at cdavis@wbjournal.com.
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