E-Mail No-No’s

While I am sitting on the plane doing hundreds of e-mails (finally catching up), I flipped thru the American Way magazine. It has an article on e-mail etiquette with a list of “The Top 10 E-mail Turnoffs” (March 15, 2009, pg. 16). [BTW – Only a frequent traveler quotes airline magazines.] I think it’s a good list and hits a lot of mistakes that you see. The other key that they talk about in the text is that increased probability of someone misreading your intentions when they don’t have a voice or actions to provide more context. (A problem with text messaging professionally also.)

10 – Get overly cutesy or slang-happy in a professional e-mail.

9 – Skimp on the subject line.

8 – Miss the Mr. or Mrs. mark.

7 – Send it off without running a spell check.

6 – Sprinkle your message with flowery language.

5 – CC: for all to see.

4 – Send an irate, angry, or potentially embarrassing message.

3 – Use your work e-mail for personal time (read: racy)

2 – Go all willy-nilly with the wingdings.

1 – Hit reply all.

[On a related travel note, I need to come up with some “term” for days where I eat each meal in a different state and time zone. Had another “opportunity” to do it this week, but I only hit two time zones.]