Whether you’ve recognized this or not, email is an incredibly powerful tool that can be used either to advance or to restrict your career. It’s a quick solution for contacting a person without having to invest a lot of time into a back-and-forth exchange. Over the years, many professionals have even come to rely solely on email … almost entirely ditching telephone calls and face-to-face communication altogether.
Going back to the fact that email indeed is a powerful tool, using it comes with a lot of responsibility. So you probably would like to maximize the power of email and not having it holding you back or leading you into risky situations. Great news then. New research has been carried out on the worst email mistakes you should avoid! So keep on reading to avoid the following blunders.
The nationwide study of 1000 Brits by Pure Commercial Finance uncovered a list of the biggest mistakes you can make on work email, with adding a kiss coming out top. More than 40% of office workers think ‘xx’ on work correspondence is completely unprofessional.
While eight percent of British workers feel flattered to have received a kiss-laden missive, a more suspicious one in twenty find it manipulative and a sign that the sender wants something. Yet the omission of a kiss can also cause stress to British workers, according to the data. One in ten admitted they feel very upset if someone who usually sends kisses stops.
Not surprisingly, given the strength of feeling about the subject, only 25 percent of Brits admit to adding kisses at the end of work emails.
The top ten biggest work email mistakes are:
1. Putting kisses (xx) at the end of work emails
2. Sending without proof reading first
3. Getting the name wrong of the person you’re emailing
4. Using slang like OMG
5. Sending an email that just says ‘thanks’
6. Using too many exclamation marks
7. Sending an email you’ve written in anger
The study also found that 29 percent of British workers think using smiley faces and emojis in work correspondence is a massive no, and 20 percent hate the use of exclamation marks.
A quarter think using slang and abbreviations such as OMG should be banned, while 16 percent of office workers think you should avoid sending an email in anger.
In fact, the study found that 36 percent of office workers have sent angry emails, only to have regretted them once they had calmed down.
The study also revealed that it’s not just the content of work emails that causes problems, but the sheer volume too, with the average Brit having 651 emails in their inbox.
More than four in 10 Brits say they are unable to cope with the number of work emails they receive, with 30 percent are unable to sleep at night because of worries about the contents of their inbox.
Jade Thomas from Pure Commercial Finance says:
“This research shows how emails can be overwhelming and ultimately, take over an employee’s life. It often stops people from doing their daily job as they’re wasting too much time hunting through their inbox and replying to emails that can always wait.
‘We encourage members of staff to close their inbox for a few hours a day and to focus on their activity. This helps employees be more productive and minimise stress. If something was that important, then the office number is in every employee’s sign-off.”
