A timely and important post from Brazen Careerist on email mistakes that people make. I’ve developed an entire video series on this subject. I’ve been emailing in a professional capacity for almost 15 years, and was an email administrator for a couple of years.
Email is a powerful tool. Just like a knife, it can be used to do good or bad. Know the power of the tool, know the rules, and you can get value out of it. Make mistakes and you can ruin opportunities, or even a career.
Here are the four “unforgivable” email grievances that Brazen mentions (click through to see Jessica’s commentary):
- Be very, very careful when using the “important” flag. I have hardly ever used it, and usually when someone else uses it on me, it is not important.
- Don’t use read receipts. They were designed to let you know when people got your email. That is just creepy, by today’s standards. And how many times have you seen someone recall a receipt… which just makes you more interested in the email in the first place?
- Be careful how when you use Reply All. It should be used sometimes, and other times it should NOT be used. Learn when, and stop doing it all the time!
- Stop the thread back and forth. How many times can you say Thank You, or something else that doesn’t need to be said more than once? People are busy – send what’s important, and hold off on the rest.
What do you think bad email etiquette is? What’s missing from the list above?
