Top 10+ Ways to Annoy People with Email AHS Computing
1. Answer the Question If someone asks you a question on email be courteous and respond to the question If for some reason you cannot answer the question at least acknowledge that it was asked By answering the question you will likely prevent a further email being sent
2. Use a Meaningful Subject Try to use a subject that is meaningful to the recipient as well as yourself Read Me! & Hey! Aren t appropriate People may only initially read the subject If it doesn t interest them or has no significance then it might be unread for a time If there s no subject sometimes the message will go to SPAM/Junk Email
3. Urgent/Important & Read Receipts This will almost always annoy your recipient before he or she has even read your message The Boy Who Cried Wolf! If it is important? Pick up the phone or go visit the person Trust!
4. Not Replying in a Timely Manner If you have an email account, part of your responsibility is to reply Where appropriate In a timely manner An expectation exists to reply to co-workers, supervisors, clients The email is complicated? just send an email back saying that you have received it and that you will get back to them.
5. Replying to Everyone Do you really need to reply to everyone?
6. Using your Inbox as an Address Book
7. Attachments Do you really need to send the attachment? Are you just cluttering up someone else s Inbox? Can you post the file to SharePoint or to a webpage for downloading?
7. Attachments The cumulative effect of attachments Shared storage Decreased performance
7. Attachments Attachments that have no more information in them than the message except maybe for some colored template Messages that have no information in them and you have to open the attachment to see what the message is about
8. Use the cc: Field Sparingly CC ing up! Letting the boss in on a heated email exchange with a co-worker, mid-argument so to speak, is a sure way to create serious animosity that will probably be impossible to overcome. Getting people to do something FAST! cc ing their supervisor
8. CC Try not to use the cc: field unless the recipient in the cc: field knows why they are receiving a copy of the message. The cc: field can be confusing since the recipients might not know who is supposed to act on the message. Also, when responding to a cc: message, should you include the other recipient in the cc: field as well?
9. Spelling & Grammar An email is a reflection of who you are Some are short & some are verbose But if you do not spell well what will others think of you? Are you a spmmr?
10. Jokes They were funny in 1999 but not any more! Old ones are even worse Especially when you have to scroll down through horrible fonts to get to a bad punch line
11. Signatures Do you need to put your full signature in EVERY email? Setup multiple signatures
12. Formatting Over the top styles and formatting with stupid graphics, complicated signatures and coloured backgrounds
Formatting Imagine getting an email like this?
13. Chain Letters & Hoaxes If you receive an email message warning you of a new unstoppable virus that will immediately delete everything from your computer, this is most probably a hoax. By forwarding hoaxes you use valuable bandwidth The same goes for chain letters that promise incredible riches or ask your help with a charity Since it is impossible to find out whether a chain letter is real or not, the best place for it is the recycle bin.
Have You Seen This Before? Begin forwarded message: From: [an e-mail address you don't know] Date: December 26, 2011 11:24:10 AM CST To: [approximately 18 lines of e-mails you don't know] Subject: Fwd: Fwd: Fwd: YOU'VE GOT TO SEE THIS!! -----Original Message----- From: [another random yahoo you don't know] To: [another half-page of e-mail addresses] Sent: Sat, Dec 26, 2011 7:27 am Subject: Fwd: Fwd: YOU'VE GOT TO SEE THIS
14. Sending a Preamble of Formatting Debris So you've just encountered a warning about the health risks of paintballing or a series of photos of albino dolphins, and you absolutely must forward it on. You should begin by really asking yourself if your recipients care to see this. But if you're going to send away, you rebel you, at least do your hapless recipients the courtesy of deleting the equivalent of phlegmy throat-clearing: lines upon lines
15. Short is Best! Brevity is not rude Avoid run on sentences and try to explain yourself with as few words as possible, while making sure that what you are asking for is clear
Bonus: Out of Office Reply Example of a good Out-of- Office message: Dear Sender, I will be out of office from May 27th, 2008 to June 26, 2008 and I will be having limited access to my email during this period. For any urgent matters, please contact Mr. Humpty Dumpty on 050-123-456 or email him on hdumpty@mycompany.com Regards, Yankee Doodle Example of a bad Out-of-Office message: Dear Sender, I will be on vacation at a beach resort in Hawaii from May 27th, 2008 to June 26, 2008. I will be having limited access to my email during this period. Please contact the following people during my absence: For matters concerning cabbage and cauliflower, please contact Jack Thompson. For reporting rotten cauliflower, please contact Charlie Brown. For issues related to onions and garlic, please contact John Smith. For issues related to onions without leaves, please contact Charlie Brown. For issues related to onion skin, please contact Jack Thompson. For anything related to vegetables, please contact John Smith. For queries related to legumes, please contact Charlie Brown. Anything else related to food that grows on plants, please contact Jack Thompson Regards, Show-Off Jones
Bonus: Out of Office Reply Out-of-Office reply messages are really cool! They let the sender know that you re not in town so they need not expect an immediate reply. However, some people use the Out-of-Office to write essays to explain at great lengths what they are up to and what s missing in the organization because they are gone. I guess this is done by some users to show the boss (and everyone else) that they are taking care of a lot of responsibilities the work of four men, etc. Oh please!