Email is one of the necessary evils of doing business. We all need it to communicate on a daily basis, and there are some mistakes that co-workers make on a regular basis that can drive you up a wall. Don’t be that person in your office with our 5 easy tips on office email etiquette.
Watch the Reply All
This is the mistake that is most commonly made and it can make everyone else on the email list crazy. When you get a massive email with a lot of people copied, usually everyone on the email does not need to know your response to the email. When you hit reply, a lot of programs or email systems will default to reply to everyone that is already copied on the email. You need to make it a habit to see exactly who you are responding to, and change the setting to just reply to the sender manually when the situation calls for it. Decide for yourself if the rest of the people need to know your response or not, and send your email accordingly.
Use CC Sparingly
Along with the Reply All mistake, sometimes you do need to copy people on an email or response. Always make sure you are copying people that will need to know the information you are sending. If they don’t need to know, then all you are doing is cluttering up their inbox by sending it along. This also goes for anything funny you think you should send. Be sure to respect others enough to only send emails you know the person needs to see. Nobody likes a cluttered inbox, so don’t be the one to contribute to the clutter.
Check Your Language & Grammar
As a business professional, using company resources for your email, your language and grammar should also be professional. Using curse words or other slang is not typically acceptable in a professional environment. Typical texting speech, such as u for you or ur for your, is also not appropriate in an email used for business purposes. Even if you are typing the email from your phone, you should use professional speech and proper grammar. The people on the other end of the email will not take you seriously if you neglect these areas.
Re-read Your Email Before You Hit Send
Once you are done typing your email, re-read it at least once. This can help with the language and grammar mentioned above, but you can also check the email for autocorrect mistakes and tone. It is hard to convey proper tone in a written email. Things like sarcasm can be completely misinterpreted. You also may sound angrier in the email than you intended. Make sure the tone of your message comes through properly, and your words won’t be misconstrued.
Take it Offline If Necessary
When misunderstandings happen, which can be often when communicating over email, know when to take the conversation offline. Call your colleague on the phone, or walk over to their office, to clear up anything that feels like it’s getting out of hand. Face to face conversations can alleviate a lot of misunderstandings that take place over email. Some day they will invent various fonts to convey emotion, but until they do, try to sense when the conversation is getting out of hand, and take it offline to clear it up.