Email etiquette

[kamik86]

I was just talking about a particular email pet peeve at work. We have at least one person who will email you and then immediately come to your desk and say "Did you get my email?" Uhmmmm, I don't know yet, but if I did I certainly haven't read it yet. And if you were going to come over here anyway, why bother emailing? And if you wanted the paper trail of an email, why not give me a minute to actually answer it? Arrgggg!

I do this one occasionally but it generally is because I needed to send something electronic (a spreadsheet, document, the email the customer just sent me) that I need them to have at their desk when I go to have the conversation.

I do this even more with phone calls, but that is because we work with some data that is sensitive and we aren't allowed to discuss on a normal phone line. However we all have programs to encrypt our email. So I"m sending in an email the part of the conversation I can't say over the phone... but it is still an important time sensitive item so I'm calling you so you don't leave it in your email for the next 3 hours before you read it.

 

[Pugsly]

Just thought of another one!

When the responder changes the email subject line. Examples are:
Question
Assignment Complete
Unit 2 Response

I manage 10 units and when I am looking for responses from all 10, I sort by subject line. With the additional text in the subject line, it really throws things off! Grrr

 

[sam_gordon]

People who don't pay attention to addressee's before forwarding.

Example:
From: jim
To: Joe, Jane, Mike, Larry
What do you think about 'x'?

Usually following in a few minutes by:
From: Jane
To: Joe, Mike, Larry
FW: What do you think about 'x'?

From: Joe
To: Mike, Larry
FW: What do you think about 'x'?

Also, inappropriate use of a staff emails. If you want/need to send something to everyone in your department, go ahead, we have email groups for that. That doesn't mean you need to send the email to everyone on staff.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Emails without a subject line.

Emails to the entire office that only pertain to certain departments

Emails with "announcements" that are files.

 

[Handbag Lady]

I was just talking about a particular email pet peeve at work. We have at least one person who will email you and then immediately come to your desk and say "Did you get my email?" Uhmmmm, I don't know yet, but if I did I certainly haven't read it yet. And if you were going to come over here anyway, why bother emailing? And if you wanted the paper trail of an email, why not give me a minute to actually answer it? Arrgggg!

OMG, my boss does this but one step dumber...he calls me to chat about an email that he sends IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CURRENT PHONE CONVERSATION. How can anyone be of ANY use in that situation? No, I don't have a comment yet because I haven't read the email that you haven't sent yet.

 

[kimblebee]

Subject line with Re:re:re:re:re:re:re:re:re:re:

sigh

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I've never seen anyone try to cram too much into the subject line - do see the opposite; NOTHING in the subject line.

My beef is people who "reply" to e-mails with a phone call, especially when it's clear they haven't read the e-mail close enough to comprehend it. I don't want to waste 10 minutes on the phone listening to you mumble to yourself while you try to figure out the answer to the question I asked.

 

[LBIJim]

I was just talking about a particular email pet peeve at work. We have at least one person who will email you and then immediately come to your desk and say "Did you get my email?" Uhmmmm, I don't know yet, but if I did I certainly haven't read it yet. And if you were going to come over here anyway, why bother emailing? And if you wanted the paper trail of an email, why not give me a minute to actually answer it? Arrgggg!

We had one woman who was almost that bad, but at least she waited about five minutes before coming to your desk to ask.

I don't like it when there are a dozen or more forwarded replies when the email is finally sent to me. In 99% of cases I don't need to know all the backstory.

 

[tvguy]

I guess it depends on the office.

We often use just the subject line for a message. Our crews are reading their e-mail in the field on smartphones and don't have to open an email that way. The preview tells them everything they need.

All caps, well, our computers are set to default to it because that is how TV scripts are normally written and it moves to emails too.

Group emails, oh. I get in trouble for "over-sending", by using group e-mails. But it's a sensitive subject with me, because while over spending can be annoying, it makes sure the person who needs to get the message gets the message. My immediate supervisor has been off the last 4 days, and every day someone needed something urgently and sent messages to her ONLY. A different person covered for her each day. Things were missed because of this. A group email would have gotten the message to the person actually working.

 

[Jennasis]

I guess it depends on the office.

We often use just the subject line for a message. Our crews are reading their e-mail in the field on smartphones and don't have to open an email that way. The preview tells them everything they need.

All caps, well, our computers are set to default to it because that is how TV scripts are normally written and it moves to emails too.

Group emails, oh. I get in trouble for "over-sending", by using group e-mails. But it's a sensitive subject with me, because while over spending can be annoying, it makes sure the person who needs to get the message gets the message. My immediate supervisor has been off the last 4 days, and every day someone needed something urgently and sent messages to her ONLY. A different person covered for her each day. Things were missed because of this. A group email would have gotten the message to the person actually working.

Wouldn't be easier to text? That's what our assignment desk did.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

We had one woman who was almost that bad, but at least she waited about five minutes before coming to your desk to ask.

I don't like it when there are a dozen or more forwarded replies when the email is finally sent to me. In 99% of cases I don't need to know all the backstory.

I'd much rather get the e-mail with all the old backstory than the way I usually get it - where I'm included in every reply 6 weeks before my involvement is relevant.

 

[spacemountainmom]

My boss is great at forwarding emails to me that I probably should not see. She will have a lengthy conversation with another person and need to pass on a small piece of information I need to know. Instead of composing a new email to tell me what I should know, she forwards the entire conversation to me. I am sure she is violation all sorts of student privacy policies. I am sure that her boss would have a coronary if he knew what she passes on to me.

 

[NMAmy]

We have a group email for questions coming from outside the organization. The usual protocol is for one person to answer using Reply All so others will know that the person has been responded to.

I have one coworker who works a very erratic schedule so we're never sure if she's in her office. She will almost always JUST reply to the original email sometimes even from home when we have no idea she's working from home. And, because she doesn't have access to information from home, she often gives the wrong information in her reply.

So, when one of us replies (with the correct information), she'll send an email or stop by our desk and say, "Oops. I forgot to Reply All on that email again. And I told them this instead of what you replied."

The other day I finally told her she had to stop throwing the rest of us under the bus on this. It's making me (and our boss) crazy.

 

[sam_gordon]

Group emails, oh. I get in trouble for "over-sending", by using group e-mails. But it's a sensitive subject with me, because while over spending can be annoying, it makes sure the person who needs to get the message gets the message. My immediate supervisor has been off the last 4 days, and every day someone needed something urgently and sent messages to her ONLY. A different person covered for her each day. Things were missed because of this. A group email would have gotten the message to the person actually working.

There are times to "over send", which your example is one. But there are others when over sending is a bad thing.

 

[kamik86]

Group emails, oh. I get in trouble for "over-sending", by using group e-mails. But it's a sensitive subject with me, because while over spending can be annoying, it makes sure the person who needs to get the message gets the message. My immediate supervisor has been off the last 4 days, and every day someone needed something urgently and sent messages to her ONLY. A different person covered for her each day. Things were missed because of this. A group email would have gotten the message to the person actually working.

Does the person not have an out of office autoreply set up? That is what we do here. If your on vacation, out of the office and not checking email, or even sometimes on travel for work in a location where you know your only going to have access to email at night and not all day like normal we set up an out of office that says: Why we are gone (PTO/personal or on travel to X location), When we will be back in the office, If we will be checking email and how often, and if you need a response sooner then that a list of who you should contact based on what it is about (becasue there are 3 or 4 things you could need me for and depending on which one it is depends on who my backup is, one person doesn't cover for everything I do)

 

[kamik86]

There are times to "over send", which your example is one. But there are others when over sending is a bad thing.

That includes the person that with the slightest confrontation or disagreement will start CCing all of management. We have one that will do this and its not always just the first level of management but sometimes 2 levels of even... those people do NOT need to know that the two of us have a difference of opinion about X when we haven't even had a meeting to discuss why and if we can solve the issue ourselves yet. We are not 2 years old you do not have to run to Mom/Dad/Teacher for every problem.

 

[Ceila]

Wouldn't be easier to text? That's what our assignment desk did.

If it's something they don't need right away, I would think it makes more sense to send it via e-mail. Plus, using the subject line as the body does work if the message is brief. I'm a school librarian and will often send out a quick e-mail with the message in the subject line, such as "the library is closed this afternoon" or something like that.

 

[Jennasis]

If it's something they don't need right away, I would think it makes more sense to send it via e-mail. Plus, using the subject line as the body does work if the message is brief. I'm a school librarian and will often send out a quick e-mail with the message in the subject line, such as "the library is closed this afternoon" or something like that.

Brief messages are exactly what texting is for in the case I quoted, where you KNOW you are sending the message to someones phone (as in tvguys case where he is specifically referring to messaging a tv news crew out in the field). In your case, in a school setting or even in some businesses/offices, I would imagine you are using the computer in lieu of a phone text. And as I have repeatedly pointed out, my beef is with the person I'm working with who insists on putting long sentences and even entire paragraphs in the subject line, which wind up being cut off because they don't fit. "The Library is closed this afternoon" is far different from what I'm referring to/

 

[tvguy]

Does the person not have an out of office autoreply set up? That is what we do here. If your on vacation, out of the office and not checking email, or even sometimes on travel for work in a location where you know your only going to have access to email at night and not all day like normal we set up an out of office that says: Why we are gone (PTO/personal or on travel to X location), When we will be back in the office, If we will be checking email and how often, and if you need a response sooner then that a list of who you should contact based on what it is about (becasue there are 3 or 4 things you could need me for and depending on which one it is depends on who my backup is, one person doesn't cover for everything I do)

Yes, we have auto reply. Problem is a lot of folks e-mail their requests, and immediately log off before the auto reply hits.

 

[tvguy]

Wouldn't be easier to text? That's what our assignment desk did.

Yes. But they won't give the Assignment Desk phones to text with.