What Not To Say: E-mail Edition

I continue to be amazed by the e-mail horror stories I hear as I intersect with companies around the world. As they say, "Guns don't kill people. People kill people." The problem isn't e-mail. The problem is we often aren't sufficiently thinking before hitting "Send."

Though this list of "10 Things You Should Never Write in an E-Mail or Instant Messsage" may seem obvious, it's a good reminder to think before you send.

Do you have an e-mail story worthy of a Darwin Award? I invite you to share your story in the Comments.

Also, I invite you to get a copy of our e-book entitled How to Organize Your Inbox & Get Rid of E-Mail Clutter. You'll get helpful insights to tame the e-mail monster for less than $10 USD.

Labels: communication, e-mail

posted by Andy at 11:32 AM  

Comments

I once sent an e-mail to a guy, complaining about another group. It was only sent to him. However he thought it would be a good idea to share with the other group to show them how they were perceived. Needless to say they were not happy. After getting called into my boss' office I learned the important lesson to assume that if it is in writing it can and will be read by others.

by  Alan, 2/17/2009 3:52 PM  

A guy in our IT department forwarded an e-mail that had a video with a singing Santa linked in it. After the e-mail was passed along by many, many people, an high priority e-mail came from HR, telling everyone to immediately delete the e-mail.

As it turns out, the IT guy hadn't watched the entire video. By the second verse Santa got extremely foul, sounding more like the former governor of Illinois than Saint Nick.

Lesson: be very careful what you forward.

by  ScottB, 2/18/2009 11:40 AM