SherWeb

Emails, hard to imagine a time when they didn’t exist.  How on earth did business’ function?  Oh yeah, people talked to each other, either face-to-face, on the phone, or in a letter.  Whatever the case, whenever business was concerned, you can be sure these conversations were professional.  Letters were always addressed to specific people, double and triple checked for spelling, and always ended with a “sincerely yours”.  No matter your tools for communication, how you communicate is a huge reflection of who you are as an employee, and an employer.  Email exchange hosting takes care of the medium, you need to take care of the message.

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1.   Not proof reading what you wrote.

Sometimes we can get so busy that we quickly type up an email and hit send without thinking twice.  This is arguably the leading cause of grammatical and spelling errors, misinterpreted information, and the classic forgotten attachment.  Before sending off that email to the entire company, take a few minutes to review and edit what you’ve written.  The last thing you want is for everyone to know you still haven’t figured out the difference between their and they’re.  Okay, leprosy is probably the last thing you want, but a misspelled email should be pretty high on your list as well.

2.  Emailing instead of talking

The more advancements we make in communication technology, the less we seem to actually communicate with each other face to face.  Emails are of course a key player in the dissemination of information in the office-sphere, but they shouldn’t be when the recipient is sitting right next to you.   Always try to get out of your chair and go TALK with the people in your office, not only can you pass on the information quicker and clearer than any email, but you might actually get to know the people you work with.  This notion might seem terrifying I know, but it can be an enriching experience.

3.  Emailing when angry

Did somebody drink the diet Dr. Pepper you left in the office fridge?  While some countries chop off the hands of thieves, it is unprofessional to blast the whole company with an email requesting that the culprit meet you at the bike rack after work.  Sending emails when angry is always a bad idea, no matter how badly you want people to know what a screw up they are.  The satisfaction from pressing send will very quickly be replaced with guilt as you start to calm down and realize what a fool you’ve made of yourself.  This does not mean you shouldn’t write the email.  Write it, save it, and then look at it the next day.   The writing will act as an emotional pressure valve, and the next day you’ll find that although delicious, a stolen Dr. Pepper isn’t worth the email blast.

4.  NSFW

There is a reason we have personal email and work email.  As funny as you think your joke or picture or video might be, you don’t know the sensibilities of every employee you work with and you run the risk of offending them.  These videos and pics can also be distracting, interrupting people from important tasks and thought processes.  Unless they are industry specific and 100% clean, save the jokes for your friends.

5.  LOL, OMG , TTYL

When composing emails within the company it can be very easy to get a little too casual with the writing.  As was mentioned in item #1 on this list, it’s important to send grammatically correct, properly spelled emails.  They are a representation of your professional self, and for the same reason sneakers are reserved for Fridays, winking smiley faces should be reserved for Facebook.