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Email Etiquette
With the emergence of computers being used so frequently in the workplace, it is only appropriate that you learn some helpful techniques for your workplace environment. You may be familiar with how to IM (instant message) your friends and forward a list of the top 10 videos, but there are some guidelines that, if followed, may help you land and/or keep a job. For this section, we will not discuss normal rules such as using proper capitalization, punctuation, etc. Regular grammar rules apply in a professional setting, including email. Below are some key points for you to consider:
Know Your Audience
Possibly the most important guideline for you to consider is to know who your email is going to, and to whom it could be forwarded. If you send a casual message to your friend about something in your company, and for some reason it is forwarded again and eventually is seen by someone in seniority over your position, you could be reprimanded and/or terminated. Companies can be liable for damaging statements you make if your email falls into the wrong hands. You never know who might see a copy of your email.
Communicate the Old Fashioned Way… The Telephone
There are some things that should be handled over the telephone. For instance, if you are discussing some confidential information with a client and they probably would not want the discussion in print, simply give them a call. Other times, if the issue is confrontational, you might want to also discuss the matter on the phone or in person. If the confrontation gets heated, the person you are emailing will have documented statements that they could use against you or your company. The purpose of inventing email was to make things more convenient, not to totally replace a person's voice.
Some professionals think that it is easier to read email if the words are written in all capital letters. Please do not make this mistake. Writing in all caps can set a tone that the person is yelling at the reader. As discussed earlier, use appropriate grammar in a professional setting.
Use Professional Email Name and Address
Using Loverboy@abc.com or Sweetbabe@abc.com as your email address could cause a prospective employer to not consider you as a mature professional. If you choose to have an email address that allows you to express who you are, that is your choice. Most Internet Service Providers will allow you multiple screen names. For professional reasons, use a basic email address using a version of your name that will help identify your email in an employer's inbox.
Protect Your Information and Insure Privacy
There are some individuals who seek to retrieve information that does not belong to them. Some of the techniques they use are legal and some are illegal. There are a few ways to combat these tactics. One way an individual or company can acquire your email address is if your email address shows up on a distribution list where a friend emailed something to you and ten other people. If that email is forwarded, anyone who receives the forwarded email now has your email address. Most times, no one abuses this information, but the possibility exists. If you include a client's email address in a distribution list and that email is forwarded, it is possible someone could misuse your client's email address, and in turn, hurt the client's relationship with you and your company. To still use the distribution list, but also insure each person's privacy, you can use the "To" line to send yourself a copy of the email. For everyone else, enter their email address in the "BCC" line. This abbreviation means "Blind Carbon Copy." It will keep the distribution list private, in case the email is forwarded. If you want the reader to know who else received a copy of the email, use the "CC" (Carbon Copy) line to enter additional email addresses.
If there is a body of text that is worth forwarding, but you want to insure the privacy of the distribution list, you can always make a new email, cut and paste the appropriate text, and send the email without risking exposure of the other confidential information.
Some companies will instruct you on the procedures to prevent viruses and potential "hackers," according to their standards. Be sure to follow company policy for email use in order to protect confidential information. Software such as VPN (Virtual Private Network) may be added to company networks to combat unauthorized personnel access. Always comply with company procedures when you are engaged in communications via the Internet.
Use "Subject" Line
When communicating with a prospective employer or with clients, always use the subject line. Sometimes a person can tell by the subject line whether the email is urgent or if the email can be read after completing other tasks that require immediate attention.
Be brief. If an employer said that they prefer you send your resume via email, be brief in the subject line. For instance, use "My Resume" instead of "The Resume You Asked Me To Send Via Email." Professionals like for you to get a message across in the least number of words possible. To them, time is money.
Delivery Confirmation
In some instances, it is important to know whether the intended recipient received your email or not. You can confirm this in a number of ways. The easiest is using the delivery confirmation option that is common to most email operating systems. A phone call is also appropriate if there is a need to converse with the email recipient. Additionally, you can ask the recipient to reply to confirm receiving the email. However, you are at the mercy of them responding in a timely fashion.
Conclusion
These few paragraphs barely touch some of the important factors to remember when you engage in electronic communication. For a more detailed discussion of email etiquette, you can do a search at www.google.com, keywords "email etiquette," or you can request a copy of your prospective company's policy towards handling email communications.
Do's and Do nots
- Salutations: use standard formalities as if you were writing a letter (i.e. Dear Mr. Smith)
- Signatures: Again use standard formalities, include your name, title, company name and email address in your signature line.
- Subject: Always include a pertinent subject title for the message so that the reader can quickly locate the message and determine its importance.
- Forwarding: Delete the list of previous email addresses as a courtesy to the reader and for the privacy of documents.
- Language: All communication should contain professional levels of language. All profanity, off-color or sexually explicit jokes or stories, prejudicial references or slander is prohibited.
- Do not be a novelist. Messages should be concise and to the point.
- Do not use too much punctuation. If something is important, it should be reflected in your text, not in your punctuation.
- Formatting is not everything. Do not use fancy fonts, colors, backgrounds, etc. Some servers cannot handle messages in these formats.
- Use of all uppercase words is the equivalent of shouting in someone's ear. ONLY use uppercase words when trying to make a very important point.
- Abbreviations: Only use abbreviations that are common to the English language (i.e. FYI), beyond that you run the risk of confusing your recipient.
- Smilies: Since there are no visual or auditory cues with email, users have come up with something called "smilies". They are simple strings of characters that are interspersed in the email text to convey the writer's emotions. Use sparingly.
- Privacy: There is no such thing as a private email. With some systems, the email administrator has the ability to read any and all email messages.
- Some companies monitor employee email.
- Somewhere in the world there is a person (usually a hacker) who is able to read your email as well.
- Do not send anything by email that you would not want posted on the company bulletin board.
- Resumes: Only send to one recipient at a time. Attach to your email. Do not paste the information directly into the body of the email.
- Responses: Email is a conversation that does not require an immediate response. It may take five minutes or five days before the recipient is able to respond.
Resources:
Kutais, B.G. (1999). Internet Policies and Issues. Commack, New Jersey: Nova Science Publishers, Inc.
National School Board Association (1999). Legal Issues and Educational Technology. Alexandria, VA: NSBA.
NSBA (1995). Plans and Policies for Technology in Education. Alexandria, VA: NSBA.
Shea, Virginia. The Core Rules of Netiquette.
Shrm.org