Top 5 signs you should not send that email
by. Anthony Demangone
For all I gripe about email, it is a powerful tool that is here to stay. At least for a while.
This is what Kate thinks of email.
That being said, even the best tools have their limits. There are times when “email” falls short. A short meeting or phone call might be better. Or no communication at all. Just when are those times?
- When you broke your keyboard typing in anger. If a colleague who works on a different floor heard you type your email, you may want to consider a cooling off period before you hit send. Anger and emails are a dangerous couple. Love is forever? That’s up for debate. But not for emails.
- Hitting “reply all” for 99.45% of normal work emails. Say you send an email to 10 people asking for input. One person “replies all.” The other nine have a choice. Do they respond to your original question, or do they respond to the new universe that consists of your question and the response? Before you know it, people are weighing in on responses to responses that responded to a response that didn’t come from you. If you want a brainstorming session, call a meeting. If I ruled the world, I’d create a pop-up box when someone hits “reply all” to make sure that’s what they really want to do. I’m telling you, 99.45% of the time, it isn’t.