More things you should NEVER do in Office Email

Options
124

Replies

  • KetoBella
    KetoBella Posts: 141 Member
    Options
    Carefully check if using autocorrect. The President of our company went by Stu (short for Stewart), in my response to one of his emails I was shocked to see autocorrect changed his name to Stud. .:blushing:
  • MonkRocker
    MonkRocker Posts: 198
    Options
    Never e-mail when you can walk to their office and tell them.
    I have to disagree with that one. I don't need people walking into my office unannounced, interrupting me 20 times a day to tell me something that could have been emailed. Plus, if you email me, I have it right there, documented, and I can refer back to it. If you just tell me, I have to write it down myself and track it.

    This. Documentation is a thing, particularly when people are asking you to complete tasks related to job performance and all. Someone can deny having a verbal conversation with you, but they can't deny the email sitting right there in the inbox, and in your outbox.

    And most of the things you guys are saying I don't consider appropriate for any written communication. Aside from maybe smileys, but only when texting. I don't use textspeak when I text because it's irksome to read and I wouldn't inflict it on anyone else either. If typing 3 letters for 'you' is WAY more strain than typing one letter for 'u' then I would suggest you have larger problems to worry about.

    Er...sorry. i wud sugst u hv lrgr prblms 2 wury abt


    Edit: good lord typing that made me feel dirty. *shudder*
  • placeboaddiction
    placeboaddiction Posts: 451 Member
    Options
    My rules that I have used since I started using e-mail

    Never write it in an e-mail if you would never say it face to face.

    Never e-mail when you can walk to their office and tell them.

    Never use reply all, that way you can't screw it up.

    On rule 3, I always email. There's a trail of responsibility there. If I speak to an engineer and they say they are going to do what I asked, and then they don't do what I asked, then there is no proof I ever spoke to the engineer. I even email after I talk to someone to confirm our conversation. C.Y.A. all the time. There are rats EVERYWHERE.
  • kristen807
    kristen807 Posts: 361
    Options
    Double check before you use "reply all"
    Especially when your reply was "WTF???"

    ^^This
  • Wenchilada
    Wenchilada Posts: 472 Member
    Options
    Use the phrase (for example): "Please contact Bob or myself"

    You can't contact MYSELF! If you take Bob out of the phrase you wouldn't say "Please contact myself", you'd say "Please contact ME".

    YES YES YES. Thank you! Also, sometimes, "me" is the correct word choice, when confused as to whether you should use "me" or "I." This is one of those instances. Would you say, "Please contact I"? Using "me" where grammatically correct doesn't make you sound like a hillbilly, contrary to what everyone's mothers have told us.

    Never e-mail when you can walk to their office and tell them.
    I have to disagree with that one. I don't need people walking into my office unannounced, interrupting me 20 times a day to tell me something that could have been emailed. Plus, if you email me, I have it right there, documented, and I can refer back to it. If you just tell me, I have to write it down myself and track it.

    This. Documentation is a thing, particularly when people are asking you to complete tasks related to job performance and all. Someone can deny having a verbal conversation with you, but they can't deny the email sitting right there in the inbox, and in your outbox.

    I have to agree with the disagreements. Also, email is very useful if my coworker is on, say, a conference call in her office (which is right next door to mine), and she needs me to grab something for her or needs to ask me a question that she wouldn't otherwise be able to unless she momentarily excused herself from the call. Plus, if it's noisy in the general office area (which happens occasionally), we both shut our doors, and then email is the best option. Her desk is a long way from her door, although I have the luxury of having a tiny office (heh) where I can reach the door from my chair. :)
  • SeaChele77
    SeaChele77 Posts: 1,103 Member
    Options
    Double check before you use "reply all"

    Oh my gosh...^^^^^THIS!!!!!

    Use punctuation and re-read the email before hiting send
  • roch1972
    roch1972 Posts: 113 Member
    Options
    Never edit someone's message and then forward it. My former manager does this.

    Seriously?? Wow!
  • TylerJ76
    TylerJ76 Posts: 4,375 Member
    Options
    -Have your photo in your signature(creepy as duck and totally jarring before coffee)

    People actually do that??

    we do this

    Really?
    Seems highly unprofessional to me.
  • Spokez70
    Spokez70 Posts: 548 Member
    Options
    Don't trust automatic spell correction. A few years ago I was sending a quick evaluation of an employee to another manager and it auto-corrected my misspelling if conscientious changing it to contentious.
  • roch1972
    roch1972 Posts: 113 Member
    Options
    An EVP at my company uses the following..a lot!

    NP
    Thx
    :)
    u (instead of You)
    U2
  • Wenchilada
    Wenchilada Posts: 472 Member
    Options
    Don't trust automatic spell correction. A few years ago I was sending a quick evaluation of an employee to another manager and it auto-corrected my misspelling if conscientious changing it to contentious.

    ...ouch.
  • stunningalmond
    stunningalmond Posts: 275 Member
    Options
    Like the word "DOCK" for instance.

    Example:
    "this authorization is for the construction of a 4' by 250' DOCK, with a 6' by 20' terminal platform.

    As luck would have it, the i is right next to the O

    I work in a shipping office and I've done this numerous times. Luckily I've always caught myself! So far, at least.

    I have to agree with the double checking of EVERYTHING. Too many times I've read e-mails from supervisors, higher ups, etc that have all kinds of spelling errors and run-on sentences from hell.


    I had someone type me an email and they meant to type COUNT but left out the O.
  • iLoveMyPitbull1225
    iLoveMyPitbull1225 Posts: 1,690 Member
    Options
    I work in a huge government building, and my sister and mother both work int he same building, just in seperate divisions. SO often people will just type the first 2 letters of my last name into the outlook database we use for emails and send it to the first result (my mom.) I feel so bad for her because she gets so many of my emails. I have to b*** at the people in my office about it. STOP EMAILING MY MOMMY lol
  • Pollywog39
    Pollywog39 Posts: 1,730 Member
    Options
    So many email pet-peeves......

    bad grammar and spelling (really, people? Did you go to school for this? How did you pass an English class?) My boss is a notorious misspeller and horrific grammarizer (is that a word??)

    I hate, hate when you have an original email, it goes to a few people, then a few people more - everyone commenting and adding, but NEVER EVER deleting any of the crap down below that is no longer relevant! Emails that are 10 pages with lines and lines of signatures and nonsense are irritating as hell.
  • mtaylor33557
    mtaylor33557 Posts: 542 Member
    Options
    My husband and I worked together at a small construction & engineering firm. I sent him a message one day telling him how I wasn't feeling well, or I had had a bad day.. I can't remember exactly, but obviously it came in at about the same time as a message from a coworker of ours and he accidentally replied to him... "I'm sorry, sweetie, I'll make it up to you when we get home"

    The guy was a good sport and replied something along the lines of "Well, sweetie, I'm not sure what you are talking about, but what do you have in mind"

    It was a very small office and we all knew each other well.. but, you really have to watch who you are replying to!
  • McMomsie
    McMomsie Posts: 4 Member
    Options
    Or when you think you're reporting someone for foul language and how they're acting in the office, when instead of sending the email to your boss it was sent to that person, FML!!! LOL

    I laughed like crazy when i read this one! I did this once to a bff, about her husband... message meant for my husband. whoops!!!
  • AwesomeOne66
    AwesomeOne66 Posts: 220
    Options
    Spell-check is great...but if it's still a "real" word, the e-brain isn't going to pick it up....I work in public land management....miss the "L" out of public and it's a whole different sort of work!
  • rjt1000
    rjt1000 Posts: 700 Member
    Options
    Or when you think you're reporting someone for foul language and how they're acting in the office, when instead of sending the email to your boss it was sent to that person, FML!!! LOL

    I laughed like crazy when i read this one! I did this once to a bff, about her husband... message meant for my husband. whoops!!!

    I once thought I was forwarding one of my boss' emails to my wife with a "see what a complete idiot this guy is" message. I realized the second I clicked the Send button that I'd hit reply not forward. Luckily, right that second my boss walked past my office headed to the bathroom. I ran to his office, deleted the email and emptied his deleted mail folder. sometimes, you get lucky.....
  • rjt1000
    rjt1000 Posts: 700 Member
    Options
    my wife had been talking with her boss about gardening one day and she'd mentioned a type of flowering bush we had which had a very strong sweet smell. Couple days later her boss was trying to tell his wife they should plant one but couldn't remember the type. Called my wife in her office and she answered on speaker phone. "Hey, jackie, what's the name of your sweet smelling bush?"
  • rjt1000
    rjt1000 Posts: 700 Member
    Options
    Double check before you use "reply all"

    This so much. We have almost 2000 employees at our headquarters building (including manufacturing). Someone will send out an email to EVERYONE with something like "Missing Box for parts from Acme Widgets". Then people will use reply all to tell the sender to check with so and so, and then another person will reply all with something like 'oh I saw that box on the receiving dock'. Then finally the original sender will reply all again with 'missing box found'.

    AAARRRRRGGGG

    quick way to crash an email system. Send an email to All users (whatever group your company uses) and click the option to get receipts when the email is read, forwarded, deleted, etc. I worked for a major tobacco company that owned a major brewing company (about 50,000 employees) at one time and some idiot did that. And a bunch of people responded to the original email with "don't email everybody, you dope" by clicking the "reply all" button. Took 2 days to get the email system functional again.

Categories