Learning To Respect, And Not Abuse,
Your E-Mail Rights

Contributed by Jay Schroyer

I used to work for a placement service with a friend of mine from college. He was always sending me outrageous jokes via e-mail and after awhile, when I was really swamped, I started ignoring them. Unfortunately, he made no designation between what e-mails were jokes and which ones where business. As a result, we both lost out on a lot of client opportunities because the communication between us wasn’t being taken seriously. This is an extreme case of e-mail abuse, but things like this happen all the time. Whether someone writes something inappropriate in a message, attaches an attachment that no one can open, or accidentally e-mails confidential information to the wrong person, e-mail has quickly become not only the number one form of business communication, but the most heavily misused. Take a look at these dos and don’ts below to make sure that you aren’t becoming one of the many abusers.

• Remain professional in not only your tone, but your writing as well. Don’t write in fragments and follow the rules of sentence structure. DO NOT TYPE IN ALL CAPS! This is the equivalent of yelling. Keep the e-mail on track and focused. Don’t say things that you wouldn’t say in person.
• Consider your audience. Check who you’re including in the “TO:” and “CC:” boxes and decide if it’s really appropriate. Is this a private matter that maybe everyone doesn’t need to know about?
• Double-check your attachment. Can you double-click on it and open it? Is it the right file? Is it in a format that all your receivers can open? Is the file too large for e-mailing?
• Provide an appropriate and informative message title. You wouldn’t send the monthly sales numbers with a message title that reads “Snoopy for President.” Make your title short and informational so that a busy person can take a glance at it and know whether or not they need to read it immediately.
• Request confirmation on important, sent e-mails. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the receiver will reply instantly, but at least you will know that they received the e-mail in the first place.
  

• Press “Send” without reading and rereading your message, double-checking your attachment (if you have one), proofreading your addresses, and providing an informative message title.
• Practice your stand-up routine in your e-mail message. What’s funny to you may be offensive to someone else. Because e-mail is a written form of communication, things such as sarcasm and jocularity are often hard to convey. Keep it simple, keep it informative, and save the jokes for your next face-to-face.
• Assume anything. You know what assuming does, so if you don’t want to look like a donkey’s posterior, double-check everything. When in doubt, ask or look it up.
• Spam. Spammers are one of the lowest forms of life on Earth (with the exception of telemarketers). Don’t send people things that they haven’t requested. You may think you’re doing them a favor by sending them the informative monthly company newsletter, but more than likely you’ll just make them angry. Contact them and make sure it’s okay before loading their mailbox with unsolicited e-mail.
• Use the e-mail medium to discuss extremely personal matters or to settle disputes. There are numerous reasons for this, but here are the top two: you never know who will and can read the e-mail you’re sending and without being able to read body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice, you will always be at a disadvantage in a touchy situation. E-mails can be intercepted and infiltrated by numerous people along the delivery route. And if you accidentally send a personal e-mail to the wrong person, you can open a can of worms. Disputes are best solved face-to-face especially over business matters. It shows professionalism, a willingness to face one’s adversary, and the courtesy of taking time out of your busy day to handle the situation correctly.

As positive as the quickness of e-mail is, this is also its greatest negative. In an instant, you can turn peace and tranquility into unrest and disaster. By taking a moment to reflect on what we’ve written, who we’re sending it to, and why, we can avoid the many pitfalls of e-mail. Let’s all make an effort to keep e-mail relevant and valuable by taking advantage of its positives and avoiding falling into the trap of its negatives. We don’t ever want to see the day when receiving e-mail is a disadvantage.

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