When NOT to Send an Email
Have you ever received an email message that you thought could have been communicated in a better way? I bet if you were one of the 400 Radio Shack employees who were laid off last fall via an email message, you have this thought. (In defense of the situation, executives at Radio Shack said “they (the employees) were warned that firings would be made via email. . . ). Does that justify it? I don’t think so.
This situation got me thinking about all the times that sending email is appropriate and more importantly, when it is NOT appropriate. Here are just a few situations at work I thought about:
- If your boss has been away and you need to get his or her attention, sending email probably won’t do it. They are sure to have a backlog and yours is just one in the crowd.
- If you have a confidential question about your paycheck, sending it over email may get your question answered but now it is possible for others to see your request if it is sent in error to someone else.
- If you are upset about a new co-worker who is not pulling their weight, talking about it over email to your other colleagues (also known as gossiping) may come back to haunt you. It is very easy for email forwarding accidents to occur.
I have put together this starter list of times when email is NOT appropriate that I hope you will seriously consider as situations arise in your lives. Remember that email is NOT as private as you think!
DO NOT SEND EMAIL:
- If you need to get someone’s attention about an urgent or pressing matter.
- When describing a complicated procedure.
- When you are angry.
- For gossip.
- For sending jokes and chain letters.
- When you really want to resolve a conflict or misunderstanding.
- When delivering bad news.
- When you want to make a heartfelt apology.
- When typing it takes you longer than making a phone call.
- For anything you care that others might read.
Using email for most other communications is adequate but there is nothing like a personal phone call or a face-to- face conversation to help secure, solidify and build a working relationship.
What are your ideas for when NOT to send an email?
About the Author:
Abby Marks Beale is founder of The Corporate Educator, a professional speaking and training company specializing in helping with busy people work smarter, faster and just plain better. Go to www.TheCorporateEducator.com.
Hi Abby, I appreciate your take on emails. Especially the part about being private. They basically document your actions and may be held against you if you use it inappropriately.
However, I would suggest that you can (and sometimes should) use an email in some of the situations you mentioned above. In many of these cases an email should be followed up with a face-to-face or a personalized phone call, but an email should be used as an initiatory or supplementary form of communication.
Here are the situations in which I agree:
- When you are angry.
- For gossip.
- For sending jokes and chain letters.
- For anything you care that others might read.
These situations are probably true in most forms of communication, but especially in documented emails, texts, tweets, facebook posts, etc.
The following situations, I believe should have email as a form of initiation or supplementation to the conversation:
- If you need to get someone’s attention about an urgent or pressing matter.
- When describing a complicated procedure.
- When you really want to resolve a conflict or misunderstanding.
- When delivering bad news.
- When you want to make a heartfelt apology.
- When typing it takes you longer than making a phone call.
In many of these cases, an email will document your communication and present the issue or solution at hand. For the most part, they will need to be followed up with a personal contact (face-to-face, phone call, etc.). My point being, email can be very effective in these situations and, if used properly, should be used in these situations.
Nevertheless, I appreciate your view and understand why you’d include those in your list. But with the many other forms of communication we use today, I’d say that email can be very versatile as long as you use it appropriately.
Comment by Micah Lauret — June 21, 2010 @ 4:25 pm