Email has become the most essential tool of business communication yet many workers lack vital email skills – so are you one of the top ten biggest email sinners?
Research done by LondonOffices.com has revealed the biggest email faux pas that can negatively impact a business.
They believe companies should train staff in how to craft concise and professional emails which help to convey the right image of their company – and steer clear of potentially offensive text speak such as FFS.
From overuse of capitals and exclamation marks to failing to reply and constantly having an out of office responder switched on, there are email faux pas many of us will recognise.
Chris Meredith of LondonOffices.com told YCB: “Email is essential to modern business but very few companies invest in training their teams how to use it effectively.
“As a result, there is a huge amount of miscommunication over email and our list identifies the top ten biggest email sinners.”
Here are Top Ten Emailers from Hell:
1. The Shouty One
Every email they send will end with exclamation marks or will be in full caps. They fail to realise this is the digital equivalent to shouting in the recipient’s face.
2. The Vague One
They are sent an email with five questions and then reply with eight answers, sadly still not addressing the questions they were asked so the recipient remains unenlightened.
3. The Invisible One
This worker receives fifty emails a day and never seems to reply to any of them. They also tend to have cryptic email addresses that bear no resemblance to their name or their job, making them almost impossible to contact in the first place.
4. The Abrupt One
They are not necessarily rude, they are just in the habit of using as few words as possible. You might send them essays about your ideas and put an awful lot of time and effort to describing your deepest thoughts as coherently as possible but you still get: “Sounds good.”
5. The Oversharing One
Sometimes just apologising for a late reply is enough, you don’t always need to share the details of how your haemorrhoids are acting up today and you’ve been stuck in the toilet.
6. The Texter
Emails should be concise and business like but many young professionals fail to understand the difference between email and texting and so think it’s acceptable to include text speak such as WUU2? (What are you up to?), BRB (Be Right Back) and FFS (We shall leave this one to your imagination). There’s no place for such acronyms in business emails.
7. The Formal One
When you receive an email from them you may feel like you’ve just opened a letter from 1852. This ultra-polite emailer will address with “Dear Sir or Madam” and sign off with “Yours with the deepest respect.” You may feel like responding with “Nigel, I’ve known you for twelve years, you don’t have to email me like this.”
8. The Absent One
As soon as you hit send you get a response saying they are on holiday and will return last year. Yes, they still haven’t switched off their out of office from last summer. You can see them across the room but apparently, they’re not really there.
9. The Comedian
These are the people who like to think they’re Ricky Gervais but sadly they are more like his The Office alter ego David Brent. Their emails usually contain a lame gag and some boasts about their life away from the office. They fail to realise that no one is remotely interested.
10. The Profound One
These are the amateur philosophers with inspirational quotes downloaded from the internet. They like to think they bring wisdom to the workplace but the reality is most people find them incredibly tedious.
