Email etiquette

1 comment

IT TOPICS:Careers

Before the advent of email, when you received a phone message from someone, it was common courtesy to return that call when a response was warranted. With email taking center stage as the communication medium du jour, you would think the same modus operandi would apply. Not so, as I've (especially, lately) sent email to which I've received no response and/or simply been ignored. When I've telephone called in follow-up, the response is, "I got your email but haven't had a chance to respond." It takes just a second to say "Got your message. I'll get back to you soon." My wife seems to think that unlike telephone messages, email messages are easier to postpone responding to and are even more easy to blow off entirely. She did bring up an interesting point though, sure you can just ignore or delete either message, but what about those blind carbon copies? Perhaps there are others out there that have also received a copy of an email message you've received and are aware you were sent one, as well. Hmm

Email this

Digg this

What People Are Saying

Add new comment

We've jumped in the past 40

Submitted by George Falcon on September 4, 2007 - 12:05 P.M.

We've jumped in the past 40 years from a business social standard where professionals all had secretaries to do their typing to a standard where professionals are implicitly expected to do their own typing in most cases. What we in business society forgot was that secretaries were expected to have two critical foundation skills: spelling and typing. Modern business leaders don't want to have to admit any weakness in typing accuracy or speed, but these weaknesses exist, and are being "worked around" by those who're weak in spelling and / or typing. One workaround is not dealing with email, offering excuses. Since one cannot fix a problem until one admits one has a problem, this problem will not be fixed until managers at high levels recognize this deficiency and address it. I believe it will have to be addressed in a two-fold approach: education at elementary and middle school levels for children, and remedial classes for adults already in the business world.

Reply | Report this comment