Beware of paying attention to or going back to what you once were, when God wants you to be something you've never been... - Oswald Chambers

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Work Email Etiquette Rant

Mmmmmk, first day back after Christmas/Holiday vacations and I'm sorry, but I'm going on an email rant.

If email is not a part of your everyday work routine, I'm not sure how well you can relate to this post, but maybe you can pick up on these frustrations. I work in the financial planning/consultative sales world and I spend all day with my inbox open and I have email sent to my phone because when you work in this industry and people need answers after hours, you have to be able to give it to them. Sucks, but I guess that's just part of the gig and truthfully, it doesn't really bother me...

For those of you that do work in the email world, here's a list of rantings that you may be able to relate to:
  1. For pete sake, start your email with a friggin' greeting. I have a name and it would be nice if you would say "Hi Nicole" or "Good morning Nicole" or even a simple hello! instead of just ranting on about what you need from me and you need it ASAP...
  2. Which brings me to my second point - This is an email, an electronic business exchange that I will be recording in my system - idk about u but u should maybe actually spell out the words u r trying 2 say 2 me so u sound a bit more intelligent.
  3. Use a font that I can actually read and furthermore, use a color that's more professional. Cursive fonts, CURLZ font, pink, light purple color fonts that scream princesses and butterflies or magical fairy land is not appropriate for the professional world. Personal email, do whatever you like, but seriously? There's a butterfly next to your signature and we work in the financial services industry. There is no relation whatsoever.
  4. English lesson number 1 - There (location), Their (possessive), They're (They Are - Conjuction). Period. Enough said.
  5. use a little punctuation in your email not everything needs to be in lower case letters and in a run on sentence that has no end because its really daunting to read and you seriously sound and look like you are not professional and have no idea what youre doing and i dont know or understand why a client would trust you with their financial well being if you cant even put a . at the end of a sentence
  6. English lesson number 2 - it's stands for IT IS. NOTHING ELSE. #iamagrammarnazi.
  7. If you're my co-worker and you're in my office and sending me a novel of an email, for goodness sake get your butt off your chair and come talk to me about it. If I have to scroll to read this email from you, I'm going to get mad and may not even read it at all.
  8. I know getting emails sent to your phone is convenient, but PLEASE don't treat it like a text message. I think the point of having emails sent to your phone is to make your work seamless and so you can travel and others don't necessarily know you're out of the office. It seriously drives me bonkers when I get an email that says "K. Sent from myiPhone".
  9. If you're going to be out of the office for more than 1 day, put your away message on with information on who to contact in your absence. When you come back, see my 10 emails and apologize for being out of the office for 2 weeks, this is just not good business etiquette and quite frankly, is UBER FRUSTRATING.
  10. DON'T TYPE EVERYTHING IN CAPITAL LETTERS. EVEN IF YOU'RE NOT, IT MAKES YOU SEEM ANGRY AND MAD ABOUT SOMETHING!!!!!!!!!
That's enough for now. Looking forward to hearing your frustrations regarding email or any work etiquette for that matter....

2 comments:

  1. You brought me back to the good old days at Verizon.. Better known as the Purgatory of my Life! I loved your gramatical rants and especially agree with you on etiquette! It seems many common courtesies are being overlooked these days!

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  2. I know, it's sad when we acknowledge a "nice" email as being one where someone actually greets you and uses proper punctuation!

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