E-Mail Etiquette at Work

This guide of how to well use e-mail as an efficient tool of a manager’s daily work was forwarded by my functional manager to me as a must-read tutorial. It is also appropriate for every professional person not only for the managerial level. Happy Reading.

 

What does your e-mail say about you as a manager?

It provides a window into your workplace status, work habits, stress levels, even your personality.                                                                                                 

One can analyze an anonymous piece of e-mail and tell the sender’s likely corporate rank and seniority level.

“Higher status” managerial e-mails have a level of formality, tone and lack of detail that is less apparent at mid-management levels and below.                             

Smiley faces and joke mails are more prevalent at lower management levels, where correspondence is more task-based and e-mailers allow themselves to let off steam.

E-mail is an extremely valuable communication channel for today’s managers, but it can be abused if used carelessly or too much.

Here are 10 basic tips for better e-mail use and management.

1. Use e-mail as one channel of communication, but not your only one.

It’s fast and easy. It can document discussions. It enables high-impact messages to be sent around the world with the click of a mouse. But it also misleads bosses into thinking they can manage large groups of people through regular group e-mails.        

Use e-mail wisely, but don’t manage your company through it. You won’t reach everybody you need to reach and your presence won’t be felt.

2. Keep it short and sweet and don’t allow e-mail threads longer than a football field.

Know that e-mails longer than one screen-full often aren’t read right away; they get shoved to the end of the day or the next morning. Know also when it’s time to put down the mouse and go talk to someone, or pick up the phone. There comes a point when further e-mailing eats up time unnecessarily.

3. De-code your messages as much as possible.

Say what you really want to have happen. Start with the subject line: Make it clear and compelling (and be willing to change it when the subject in a thread changes). Be certain about who really needs to be on the “to:” and the “cc:” line. Be clear about action items and priorities.  Spell them out, as lists or bulleted items. Include a response button or some other mechanism if you must know that everyone has read and understood your message.

4. Encourage people to respond with questions.

That’s akin to keeping your office door open.

5. Save your wrath for face-to-face meetings.

“Flame mails,” or e-mails dripping with criticism or venom, often backfire. Terse e-mails, because they are not accompanied by the writer’s facial _expression or body language, can easily come across more harsh than intended. You control the message — and the emotions on the other end — much better by delivering it in person or over the phone.

6. Likewise, inject humor, but keep emoticons, smiley faces and joke mails to a minimum.

The smiley faces do help clarify when you are being facetious. But too many facetious mails will erode at your attempts to write serious ones. What about joke e-mails? Some companies forbid them. Send them or pass them on at your own risk. There is usually more downside than upside, but everybody needs a good laugh now and then. Again, too many joke mails will erode your attempts to send serious ones.

7. Consider setting a 5-minute buffer between when you send and when it goes out. 

Value in managers being able to retract poorly written messages before they even go out. “A 5-minute rule won’t hurt anyone.” In Microsoft Outlook, you can delay the delivery of messages for a specified time through the “Rules Wizard.” If you’re angry when you’re about to write, take a step further. Get up and walk around or do something else before you write the mail.

8. Work in time each day to answer your e-mails, or get help.

If you can’t keep up during a normal day, build time into your work day or delegate some of the responsibility. When is it too late to respond to someone? Never. Just make sure you have a good explanation.

9. If you can’t write e-mails effectively, get some training.

Or at least get help from a secretary or subordinate. E-mail should have some role in your communication with employees, partners and others — there is really no valid reason to avoid it. But know that any remote workers and others who don’t see you regularly may judge you largely on your e-mails.

10. Use spell-check — and a thesaurus.

Avoid typos and mangled sentences. They make you look bad. Avoid clichés, too.

Merry Christmas

THE HOME_THE CRESCENT MOON

The Home

by Sir Rabindranath Tagore

I placed alone on the road across the field while the sunset was hiding its last gold like a miser.

The daylight sank deeper into the darkness, and the widowed land, whose harvest had been reaped, lay silent.

Suddenly a boy’s thrill voice rose into the sky. He traversed the dark unseen, leaving the track of his song across the hush of the evening.

His village home lay there at the end of the wasteland, beyond the sugar-cane field, hidden among the shadows of the banana and the slender areca palm, the coconut and the dark green jack-fruit trees.

I stopped for a moment in my lonely way under the starlight, and saw spread before me the darkened earth surrounding with her arms countless homes furnished with cradles and beds, mothers’ hearts and evening lamps, and young lives glad with a gladness that knows from nothing of its value for the world.

From THE CRESCENT MOON

Bless people in the earthquake

 

An earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale struck JiangXi Province, China early this morning. 

My hometown city Nanchang also affected. 

Bless all the people there. 

If there is a God, I hope he/she could hear my pray words, I hope all the human kinds, no matter the place they live and no matter what the color of their faces is, could live on a better world full of peace and love now and ever. 

 

The news link about this earthquake see here.

Podcasting_Books of Annbaby_(Nov26,2005)

I added one more show with same topic as previous podcast to read the articles by Annbaby to discuss the meaning of life.

There are five songs company with these words. My favorite one is B Flat Major from Nicolo Paganini.

This show was created in the morning time so it ended with the Amanecer (Dawn) from Carlos Nunez who is a top piper-wind from Spain.

Click here to listen this show.

Any comment or good idea about this show and music in it, please feel free to leave your comment here or send me an e-mail:  

Thank you for listening.

Podcasting_Books of Annbaby_(Nov22,2005)

 

In this show, I read four selected articles from a female author called “Annbaby� in China. The book is about all the happenings in our true and normal daily life which are usually ignored by most people. It reminds us to contemplate the meaning of life and living. And I also put some favorite songs include those from Chinese singers and Nocturne from Chopin. If you are interested to listen it, you could enter the publish page.

Any comment or good idea about this show and music in it, please feel free to leave your comment here or send me an e-mail: .

Thank you for listening.

M-W Vocabulary Builder_MENS

MENS comes from the Latin noun mensura, “measure”, and the verb metiri, “to measure”.
commensurate     Similar in size , extent, amount or degree, proportionate, corresponding.
His skill was commensurate with the varsity’s level of play .
dimension     1)Measurement in one direction or all directions; size.2)The range or scope of something.
What are the dimensions of the doorway through which all this furniture must pass?
immensity     Greatness, especially of size or degree, that may exceed ordinary means of measurement.
The immensity of the distances involved makes travel to other galaxies impossible with today’s technology .
mensurable   Capable of being measured; measurable.
To speak of the declining “quality of life” in American cities is meaningless unless it can be defined in mensurable terms such as crime rates.

M-W Vocabulary Builder_SCRIB/SCRIP

SCRIB/SCRIP comes from the Latin verb scribere, “to write”. Scribble is an old word meaning to write or draw carelessly .A written work that hasn’t been published is a manuscript. To describe is to picture something in words.
conscription   Enforced enlistment of persons, especially for military service ; draft .
The first comprehensive system for nationwide conscription was instituted by France for the Napoleonic wars that followed the French Revolution.
circumscribe  1)To clearly limit the range or activity of something .2) To draw a line around or to surround with a boundary .
Some children thrive when their freedom is clearly circumscribed and their activities supervised.
inscription     1)Something permanently written, engraved , or printed , particularly on a building , coin , medal , or piece of currency.2) The dedication of a book or work of art.
All U.S. coins bear the inscription “E pluribus unum,” meaning “from many, one”.
proscribe       To forbid as harmful or unlawful , prohibit.
Despite thousands of laws proscribing littering, the streets and public spaces of American cities continue to be regarded as common dumping grounds.

M-W Vocabulary Builder_TEN/TENU

TEN/TENU comes from the Latin adjectives tenuis, meaning “thin�. The Latin words for “thin�, “stretch�, and “hold� are similar and related ; the physical connection is obvious in the image of someone holding tenaciously to something and stretching it till it extends and becomes thin
attenuate      1)To make thin or slender.2) To reduce in amount , force, size, or value ;weaken
Now that we have been out of touch for so many years, our friendship is so attenuated that I couldn’t ask him for a favor.

extenuating Reducing or trying to reduce the seriousness of something by making partial excuses.
To lessen the sentence, she pleaded extenuating circumstances–her desperate poverty and her child’s illness.
tenure    The act, right, manner, or period of holding something , such as property , a position , or an office.
During his tenure in office, Franklin D. Roosevelt helped engineer the nation’s recovery from the Great Depression.
tenuous Having little substances or strength; flimsy , weak.
He based his argument on tenuous grounds that did not stand to close examination.

M-W Vocabulary Builder_SCAND/SCEND

SCAND/SCEND comes from the Latin verb scandere, “to climb”, Ascend, “go up”, and descend, “go down”, are the most familiar of English words it has produced.
transcend      To rise above the limits of ; overcome , surpass.
Charlotte made every attempt to transcend her in-laws’ small-minded bickering and gossip.
condescend 1)To stoop to a level of lesser importance or dignity .2) To behave as if superior.
Every once in a while their big brother condescended to take them to a children’s movie.
descendant 1)One that has come down from another or from a common stock .2) One deriving directly from a forerunner or original .
Their grandfather liked nothing better than to be surrounded by his descendants on the big holidays.
ascendancy Governing or controlling interest ; domination .
China’s growing ascendancy over Tibet was capped by the invasion of 1950 .