Here are ten e-mail etiquette tips to think about before you hit that send button:
1. Don't write anything in an e-mail that you would not want read by everybody.
2. Be tidy with your e-mail: answer it promptly, and use folders to save messages that you may need later.
3. Management might write e-mail policies that employees sign-off on.
4. Messages or replies to messages that have an angry tone are a no-no in office culture.
5. Don't give out your password or UserID to anyone.
6. Smiley faces and emoticons are inappropriate and childish.
7. Don't write e-mail in capital letters. THIS MEANS THAT YOU ARE SHOUTING. This practice is offensive at work.
8. Save attachments for the people who really need them. Sending out large files in an e-mail can be a burden on systems.
9. Sending information on e-mail to clients and people at other companies is a reflection of the company for whom you work.
10. Use the spell-checker and read your e-mail over before sending it out. Punctuation, tone and good grammar are important.
Aug 16, 2006
$630 mln lost in 2 years to e-mail scams
American consumers lost more than $8 bln over the last two years to viruses, spyware and various schemes.
Consumers face a 1-in-3 chance of becoming a cybervictim, about the same as in 2005.
Consumers lost $630 mln over the past two years to e-mail scams, Consumer Reports says.
As you can see, proffesional email managment is an important financial issue.
Consumers face a 1-in-3 chance of becoming a cybervictim, about the same as in 2005.
Consumers lost $630 mln over the past two years to e-mail scams, Consumer Reports says.
As you can see, proffesional email managment is an important financial issue.
Jul 30, 2006
Are employees lowering down when using e-mail at the office?
A study in 2004 conducted for the Department of Trade and Industry turned up a few surprises: one in 10 employees in Scotland confused co-workers or clients by sending an e-mail to the wrong person; almost two in 10 confused people with humour.
The poll of 1,000 full- and part-time employees across the UK showed that 59 per cent of workers in Scotland would still rather talk to co-workers in person than via e-mail. Part of the problem could be that behind the screen people are bolder, think they are funnier but are often more lazy when it comes to working in cyberspace.
Studies show that manners do matter in e-mail. Read more...
The poll of 1,000 full- and part-time employees across the UK showed that 59 per cent of workers in Scotland would still rather talk to co-workers in person than via e-mail. Part of the problem could be that behind the screen people are bolder, think they are funnier but are often more lazy when it comes to working in cyberspace.
Studies show that manners do matter in e-mail. Read more...
Jun 16, 2006
We must beware sending e-mail copies
The practice of sending copies of letters is not new, and electronic copy practices have clearly taken up certain elements from the use in traditional correspondence.
With the development of email as a central tool for workplace communication, the practice of sending copies has proliferated. The ease of adding recipients to the copy field has made the electronic version more pervasive and has led to new interactional practices.
Employees use copies to achieve routine collaboration in their daily work tasks, sharing knowledge, prompting feedback, and seeking support. This contributes to creating new patterns of interaction and to erasing traditional hierarchical structures and established lines of information flow.
Thus, the practice of copying others in can also serve to reinforce hierarchical structures within the organization. It makes it easier for participants to appeal to superordinates to back their claims in cases of conflict and thereby to stress the importance of institutional status rather than the force of the argument.
Copying in recipients gives employees the opportunity to build their professional identity by presenting their ideas and achievements to other members of the organization, and especially to superordinates.
But the indiscrimanadas copies can generate extra and unproductive work to the recipients. This happens frequently when the option "replay all" is used unnecessarily.
Digital literacy involves competence in participating in electronically-mediated social activities among multiple participants. It involves competence in using various addressing devices to differentiate among recipients with varying participation statuses.
Digital media literacy also involves receptive skills, such as interpreting the relevance of a message according to one's status as primary or secondary recipient. It includes the competence to fill in with relevant context, to sort messages with various degrees of relevance, and reply to them accordingly. Digital literacy involves a strategic competence, that is, a competence in using copies in order to achieve different goals.
If you want to read more about this subject see this study from Norwegian School of Management.
With the development of email as a central tool for workplace communication, the practice of sending copies has proliferated. The ease of adding recipients to the copy field has made the electronic version more pervasive and has led to new interactional practices.
Employees use copies to achieve routine collaboration in their daily work tasks, sharing knowledge, prompting feedback, and seeking support. This contributes to creating new patterns of interaction and to erasing traditional hierarchical structures and established lines of information flow.
Thus, the practice of copying others in can also serve to reinforce hierarchical structures within the organization. It makes it easier for participants to appeal to superordinates to back their claims in cases of conflict and thereby to stress the importance of institutional status rather than the force of the argument.
Copying in recipients gives employees the opportunity to build their professional identity by presenting their ideas and achievements to other members of the organization, and especially to superordinates.
But the indiscrimanadas copies can generate extra and unproductive work to the recipients. This happens frequently when the option "replay all" is used unnecessarily.
Digital literacy involves competence in participating in electronically-mediated social activities among multiple participants. It involves competence in using various addressing devices to differentiate among recipients with varying participation statuses.
Digital media literacy also involves receptive skills, such as interpreting the relevance of a message according to one's status as primary or secondary recipient. It includes the competence to fill in with relevant context, to sort messages with various degrees of relevance, and reply to them accordingly. Digital literacy involves a strategic competence, that is, a competence in using copies in order to achieve different goals.
If you want to read more about this subject see this study from Norwegian School of Management.
May 19, 2006
The tone of e-mail messages
"Don't work too hard," wrote a colleague in an e-mail today. Was she sincere or sarcastic?"
According to recent research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, we have only a 50-50 chance of ascertaining the tone of any e-mail message.
The study also shows that people think they have correctly interpreted the tone of e-mails they receive 90 percent of the time.
The researchers took 30 pairs of undergraduate students and gave each one a list of 20 statements about topics like campus food or the weather. Assuming either a serious or sarcastic tone, one member of each pair e-mailed the statements to his or her partner. The partners then guessed the intended tone and indicated how confident they were in their answers.
Those who sent the messages predicted that nearly 80 percent of the time their partners would correctly interpret the tone. In fact the recipients got it right just over 50 percent of the time.
"People often think the tone or emotion in their messages is obvious because they 'hear' the tone they intend in their head as they write," Epley explains.
At the same time, those reading messages unconsciously interpret them based on their current mood, stereotypes and expectations. Despite this, the research subjects thought they accurately interpreted the messages nine out of 10 times.
"That's how flame wars get started," says psychologist Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago, who conducted the research with Justin Kruger of New York University.
"People in our study were convinced they've accurately understood the tone of an e-mail message when in fact their odds are no better than chance," says Epley".
Further,"The reason for this is egocentrism, or the difficulty some people have detaching themselves from their own perspective, says Epley.
In other words, people aren't that good at imagining how a message might be understood from another person's perspective. So, e-mail is very easy to misinterpret, which not only triggers flame wars but lots of litigation.
Note: Tone in a e-mail is the quality in your writing that reveals your attitude toward your topic and reader. Tone comes from your choice of words, the structure of your sentences, and the order of the information you present.
According to recent research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, we have only a 50-50 chance of ascertaining the tone of any e-mail message.
The study also shows that people think they have correctly interpreted the tone of e-mails they receive 90 percent of the time.
The researchers took 30 pairs of undergraduate students and gave each one a list of 20 statements about topics like campus food or the weather. Assuming either a serious or sarcastic tone, one member of each pair e-mailed the statements to his or her partner. The partners then guessed the intended tone and indicated how confident they were in their answers.
Those who sent the messages predicted that nearly 80 percent of the time their partners would correctly interpret the tone. In fact the recipients got it right just over 50 percent of the time.
"People often think the tone or emotion in their messages is obvious because they 'hear' the tone they intend in their head as they write," Epley explains.
At the same time, those reading messages unconsciously interpret them based on their current mood, stereotypes and expectations. Despite this, the research subjects thought they accurately interpreted the messages nine out of 10 times.
"That's how flame wars get started," says psychologist Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago, who conducted the research with Justin Kruger of New York University.
"People in our study were convinced they've accurately understood the tone of an e-mail message when in fact their odds are no better than chance," says Epley".
Further,"The reason for this is egocentrism, or the difficulty some people have detaching themselves from their own perspective, says Epley.
In other words, people aren't that good at imagining how a message might be understood from another person's perspective. So, e-mail is very easy to misinterpret, which not only triggers flame wars but lots of litigation.
Note: Tone in a e-mail is the quality in your writing that reveals your attitude toward your topic and reader. Tone comes from your choice of words, the structure of your sentences, and the order of the information you present.
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