The stress you feel while dealing with email would be reduced if you improve your email habits, company email culture, and basic etiquette. You would also leave work earlier. Here is a compiled list of my seminars and a non-scientific survey on my website.
Sending or replying to everyone to CYA (cover your ass).
Stop sending everyone if everyone has no need to know. He wanted to make sure he was covered, so he’s sending his answer to everyone in a list, whether they need to know or not. Or you are sending a message to everyone because you are too lazy to select the appropriate recipients. Hold down the Alt key now and click and drag the Reply button on the toolbar away from the Reply All button (in Outlook).
People trying to solve complex problems using email.
You’re part of a new committee, then the emails start, back and forth, at breakneck speed, the more they come the more confused you get. Pick up the phone!
dirty emails.
These are the messages you receive loaded with those damn carets (>>>), or pages and pages of email addresses that weren’t CC-protected. Is it too much to ask the sender to clean up dirty emails before sending them? Would you send a letter on your company letterhead like this? You can get rid of the carets by pasting the message into Word and using the Find and Replace function to find a caret and replace all of them with nothing. You can get rid of all email addresses by simply deleting them. Clean it up and then send it off.
Subject lines that don’t match the message or do little to let you know what the message is about
. Don’t open an old message, hit Reply and send me a message that has nothing to do with the old one. Suppose you sent an email message two months ago that said, “The monthly meeting has been cancelled.” You got that old message back because the email addresses were already in it. But this time, I wanted everyone to know that coffee and donuts would be served at this month’s meeting. At the very least, change the subject line, and also add enough information in the subject line so that you know exactly what your email is about (as newspapers do when they headlines an article).
last minute cancellations.
Cancel a meeting at the last minute and let me know by email. I pop up, “Oh, didn’t you get my email?” When did you send it? I left my office two hours ago, and now my whole day is ruined.
procrastinators.
People who wait until the last minute to ask you to do something like you have nothing else to do. You know the work was piled up on his desk, and while they were looking for something else, they found it and sent you an email, marking it urgent. So when the deadline is missed, it’s not their fault because they “gave it to you”.
People who call you instead of checking their email.
You’ve done your job and emailed people the information they need. They end up calling you for the information because, “I’m too busy to check email. Always call me with the information, or at least call me to say you sent it.” Pa-lease!
Unanswered.
You send a legitimate email message to someone who has requested information. The message clearly needs a response, but nothing happens. If you’re too busy to press Answer to say “No,” you need to take a look at how you’re working. Why did you waste your time and mine?
A line.
“Thank you”, “Oh, okay.” My God! You sent an email to 25 people and 15 of them sent you a witty quote. Next time, put “No reply necessary” at the top.
underlines.
Do not underline anything in a message (or on a web page) that is not a hyperlink. I always move my mouse towards it thinking it will take me somewhere.
My original message not attached.
When someone replies to my message without the previous message below or attached, I already forgot what I asked in the first place.
smileys, emoticons.
If you wouldn’t put a smiley face or emoticon in your business correspondence, you shouldn’t include it in a business-related email.
Plaxus.
Those emails from you asking me to update my contact information. Your best customer is getting 10 of these a day! And I don’t even remember who these people are. I went to the Plaxo website and opted out of any of these annoying updates. Be sure to opt out of all your different email addresses.
Pointless Auto Responders.
How about the one that says, “Thank you for your email. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.” What a complete waste of my time to open this stupid answer. It’s almost like the postman left a message in my mailbox saying, “I picked up your mail today. I’ll bring you more when I get it.”
cute shortcuts.
Words from adult entrepreneurs using shortcuts like “4 u” (instead of “for you”), “Gr8” (for great) in business related emails. Are you lazy, or just can’t write or spell? If you wouldn’t send a company letter that way, it shouldn’t be in an email. (This is different from the legitimate abbreviations a company might develop, such as NRN for No Response Required.)
read the receipt.
As if you are checking me to see if I open your message. I don’t know why people waste time doing this because most people probably have this feature turned off in their email program.
too many attachments.
You must get permission before sending someone an email message with more than two attachments. Instead of sending five PDFs, consider combining them into one document. (If you receive a message in Outlook with many attachments, save them all at once. Click the File menu, Save Attachments, and save as you normally would.)
Attachment and no body.
If you send an email about an event and there’s no explanation in the body, I delete the message (especially if it’s a large file that would deplete my ink supply if I printed it). If the details are in the body of the message, I don’t need the attachment. I don’t need to see how creative you were with your flyer. I just need the information and I can drag it to my calendar.
Abuse of my email address.
I sign up for an event, then every week I get notices of offers, webinars, teleseminars, etc.
Recipient names are not private.
No bcc and pages of email addresses in the message. (If you’re using Outlook, click View, Bcc, and put recipient names on this line.) And don’t forward this message to your list without deleting these addresses first.
Broadcast hoaxes instead of checking for them first.
What would make you believe that Bill Gates would send you $5,000 just for sending an email? And did he know that the Teddy Bear file he so willingly deleted from his computer was a legitimate Windows file? Please check it first before submitting.
Who are you?
People I briefly put in an email a while back without reminding me who they are.
Messages without signature lines.
Your email signature is a great way to let people know more about you, especially when your email address is something like [email protected].
Add me to your email list.
I just met you, I barely remember you, and I’m already on your mailing list for your newsletter, thoughts of the day, and news you think I want to know.
Bad grammar and punctuation..
You can’t hide behind an administrative assistant to clean up your act, so take some classes and learn to spell and write. Some messages are so bad it’s like reading a foreign language and it wastes my time trying to figure out your mess.
Work email abuse.
People who send me non-work related emails from their job. I do not want my name and email address to appear in company reports. (Most big companies monitor email.)
non-professional email id.
People who would send a commercial email using addresses beginning with names like cutesuzy, beingblessed, or hardliquor, etc.