E-mail Etiquette for the Office

Anyone who uses e-mail on their job has gotten one: an e-mail that’s unprofessional, curt, or worse, borders on rude. Most of us who use e-mail as a way to communicate in the corporate world know to keep it brief and professional. But without the face-to-face contact, e-mails can be easily misunderstood. Worse, they can drag perfectly reasonable people into a game of cyberspace mud-slinging.

Why do some people let it all hang out in their e-mail communication -- the good, bad and the ugly? According to Dr. Jack O’Regan, dean of the College of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences at Argosy University, there’s an actual psychological effect behind this phenomenon.

“We all make various decisions in our daily lives and most are done with some level of governance,” says Dr. O’Regan. “The issue people face is really a ‘disinhibition effect’ where, due to the interpersonal nature of e-mail, the user often does not use the same levels of governance on appropriateness that you would have in other forms of communications. Once the user presses send, it’s gone and that’s it.”

In today’s “e-mail culture,” people are so used to “interacting through e-mail messages in a certain way that many don’t think of it as unprofessional and they are often very upfront and in your face,” he adds.

“Since humans communicate a huge amount of information non-verbally, using sarcasm or ‘humor’ in an e-mail can be easily misinterpreted,” says Chad Ness, director of technology and facilities for The Art Institutes International Minnesota.

Ness says in social e-mails, when people joke, or use sarcasm, they may use a graphic or icon -- like a smiley face -- to indicate a wink or a nod. But in corporate e-mail communication, smiley faces are frowned upon, so those visual nuances aren’t easily communicated. A good rule of thumb, says Ness, is don’t say in an e-mail what you wouldn’t say to someone in person.

“Absolutely avoid anything offensive, racist, libelous, or defamatory,” urges Ness. It may seem obvious, but “the courts are full of case histories of companies that have paid out huge penalties because of one person's thoughtless moment.”

Ness has a few easy guidelines for keeping business e-mails the professional, courteous and time-saving tool they are intended to be.

Starting with the basics, when should you send an e-mail? “Generally, you'll want to send an e-mail when you want to communicate information to large numbers of people, you want a written record of communications or you can’t reach someone on the phone and don’t want to tie-up a voice mail machine with a long message,” he says.

On the flip side, Ness says you should avoid e-mail when you need an immediate reply, the conversation will require a lot of back and forth, or the conversation should be kept private.

Other do’s and don’ts for e-mail in the corporate world include:

* Use a good subject line. Make sure it contains clear information about what you are communicating.

* Make your e-mails as short and to the point as possible. Many people these days receive upwards of 100 e-mails a day and don't really want to spend a lot of time reading unnecessary details. If you need to, use bullets.

* Be sure to reply to an e-mail as soon as possible. In this day and age, 24 hours (or one business day, for work e-mails) is the longest any e-mail should sit.

* Avoid forwarding other people's discussions or attachments, without their specific permissions; problems can occur when something was written for one person's eyes, and was mistakenly or ignorantly sent to someone else who took offense from it.

* E-mail is generally not a secure medium, so company confidential information should generally not be sent over the Internet.

Last but not least, a few miscellaneous, annoying e-mail habits you’ll want to rid yourself of soon:

* Typing in all capitals -- This is considered shouting in the world of e-mail.

* Read receipts on all your e-mails -- Save this feature for when there’s an important internal communication that must get to everyone.

* Unnecessarily pointing out the importance of your e-mail with "URGENT!!!" in the subject line, unless it really is extremely important. Generally, the recipient should think your e-mail to them is important simply because you took the time to write it

To learn more about The Art Institutes or Argosy University visit www.artinstitutes.edu/nz or www.argosyu.edu.



Courtesy of ARAcontent