Work Email Etiquette

he still stands

some people are just f'ing clueless. I sent out a credit approval email to the president, board members, and other key people in our organization the other day. I got an email back re: the same subject from someone asking me to copy her and blasting me for not doing so before. Ok, no problem... the problem is that she REPLIED ALL and even added a bunch of other people including CUSTOMERS of ours. Seriously, the REPLY ALL button should be used with caution. Wankers. Any stories about poor email etiquette, especially in the workplace?

mookeywrench

No, but seeing who gets pissed off over E-mail politics is the easiest way to fish out people who are insecure with their job.

comebackgirl

seeing who uses the "reply all" button indiscriminately seems to be a good way to fish out the people that have control issues and are insecure in general. Seems to be a passive-aggressive move for some people. The issue could have been addressed by just coming to you directly. Why involve other people just because she feels slighted? She needs to get over herself. If she was really that important you would have included her in the first place

Hugh Freaking Dillon

My Dad had a funny story. Everyone in his company got a mass email, and someone decided to make a crack about it to one of his co-workers, but he accidentally replied all, and so every person nation wide got that email. He got hundreds of emails back from people in the corporation stating the following FYI: Don't use the "reply all" button!".

The real kicker: they had ALL replied all! It bogged down their email system so badly with all of these errant replies that the president had to send out a subsequent email (once their system was back to normal speed)stating not to do such a ridiculous thing.

Hugh Freaking Dillon

bitch obviously felt professionally slighted and as others said is obviously also insecure about her position as well. especially if she ADDED people to the reply. she just made herself look like a 'tard.

he still stands wrote:

some people are just f'ing clueless. I sent out a credit approval email to the president, board members, and other key people in our organization the other day. I got an email back re: the same subject from someone asking me to copy her and blasting me for not doing so before. Ok, no problem... the problem is that she REPLIED ALL and even added a bunch of other people including CUSTOMERS of ours. Seriously, the REPLY ALL button should be used with caution. Wankers. Any stories about poor email etiquette, especially in the workplace?

comebackgirl

Paul David wrote:

My Dad had a funny story. Everyone in his company got a mass email, and someone decided to make a crack about it to one of his co-workers, but he accidentally replied all, and so every person nation wide got that email. He got hundreds of emails back from people in the corporation stating the following FYI: Don't use the "reply all" button!".

The real kicker: they had ALL replied all! It bogged down their email system so badly with all of these errant replies that the president had to send out a subsequent email (once their system was back to normal speed)stating not to do such a ridiculous thing.

Nation wide! That's fantastic

small town beck

I once sent out to my office with an attachment without realizing how big the attachment was...evidently everyone tried to open it at the same time :? :oops: I got some calls on that one

Once a friend sent me an e-mail that was supposed to be for her mother (she worked in a different department) and they were talking about someone who worked in the company. She came to me and apologized.

merkinball

My company disabled the "Reply All" button from outlook after one of the VP's didn't realize that they had used it.

Needless to say, we figured out in about 10 minutes that ctrl-shift-r still works when you need to reply all.

Thoughts_Arrive

A manager at my work has the worst email etiquette I've ever seen.

*He puts over 5 people in the Attn field and fails to name anyone in the body of his email so you don't know who the hell he is asking a question or who he is addressing

*He never ends emails with regards or thanks

*He sends the same attachments numerous times asking for action to be taken

*He fails to forward important emails from customers onto my department the day the email is received, then he has the nerve to criticize us for not processing tasks on time, wtf!

Simply he is a rude arrogant pushy postbox, everyone in my office says his ways of emailing waste everyone's time as noone know who his emails are addressed to so everyone who receives the email take time reading/opening attachments.
A big wanker!

Some people should have to earn their right to use email or be banned.

he still stands

small town beck wrote:

Once a friend sent me an e-mail that was supposed to be for her mother (she worked in a different department) and they were talking about someone who worked in the company. She came to me and apologized.

Haha... same thing happened to me about a year ago. I got an email from a co-worker BLASTING another female and saying things that could have gotten her fired. Something like "an attention seeking slut"... I opened it read 2 lines and she came SPRINTING INTO MY OFFICE and was about to lose it... Before she said anything I said, "don't worry, I've already permanently deleted it... but you should buy me lunch today."

know1

I almost think email should be banned at work since nobody knows how to use it. The lists of illogical things people do with it is almost endless.

The Juggler

comebackgirl wrote:

seeing who uses the "reply all" button indiscriminately seems to be a good way to fish out the people that have control issues and are insecure in general. Seems to be a passive-aggressive move for some people. The issue could have been addressed by just coming to you directly. Why involve other people just because she feels slighted? She needs to get over herself. If she was really that important you would have included her in the first place

i was thinking maybe it's an older person not quite as familiar the "reply all" feature as most.

comebackgirl

The Jeagler wrote:

comebackgirl wrote:

seeing who uses the "reply all" button indiscriminately seems to be a good way to fish out the people that have control issues and are insecure in general. Seems to be a passive-aggressive move for some people. The issue could have been addressed by just coming to you directly. Why involve other people just because she feels slighted? She needs to get over herself. If she was really that important you would have included her in the first place

i was thinking maybe it's an older person not quite as familiar the "reply all" feature as most.

Possible, but sounds like she added additional names which makes me think it was intentional.

he still stands

comebackgirl wrote:

Possible, but sounds like she added additional names which makes me think it was intentional.

yeah, she is "older" (about 50-ish) but she is computer savvy and included two other names (CUSTOMERS!) so it must have been intentional. This is the 2nd time she has done this.

Here is the actual exchange:

(DUMBASS) "Could you please include me on the email, when sending out new customer and ship to information.
It helps me have knowledge on what is coming on board.
Thanks
Jody"

(CFO OF COMPANY) "Why does Jan (xxxxx) get copied on these emails? (see below)"

(ME) "I didn’t copy him… it appears that Jody did when she also copied Dan, Barry, you, Dave, Sandee, Bob, Barry and Sheri on the email asking me to copy her."

... I thought my reply was a subtle jab...

UpSideDown

On the flip side : I hate when people don't use reply all.

If I send out an email with ten people on copy, it's probably because they need to be in the loop as well. Don't reply back to me only and then make me forward your stupid answer.

HeavyHands

Bcc is your friend...

JaneNY

HeavyHands wrote:

Bcc is your friend...

I love Bcc too. But I got in trouble once, when someone got offended that I told them they should use it. They were sending emails in a non-work-related setting (school alumni stuff) that included a block of email addresses together with peoples' full real names, and I pointed out that for privacy reasons they should use Bcc so that not everyone received the contact info. of 50 people. (I'm kinda private that way). My highlighting of her privacy breach offended her. :roll:

he still stands

how many times to people have to get fired for emailing porn before everyone stops doing it? Sweet jeebus... leave it at home! Also, I had a coworker send me pics of dead people... grotesque shit... NOT cool. I walked right over to his cube and told him to never do it again. Why do people look at that stuff? Weird...

JOEJOEJOE

One of my underlings emailed me, and bcc'd the managing partner of my firm. Not realizing he was bcc'd, the managing partner hit "reply to all", so he exposed the underling's lack of etiquette. Had to take her to school for that one!

pjtradeking

I recieved the following email about 3 weeks ago:



Scott,

Thank you for the quick response regarding this situation. It was a very hard thing to hear and take in. I am very upset at my wife and Jason ( I believe that is his name). This was such an irresponsible act on both of their parts. They should never put themselves in such a vulnerable position. The thing that upsets me the most and I don't mean to get into detail but there was no protection i.e.(Condom). Also the fact that Jason has Genital Herpes is very upseting because that is more stress to deal with. Now I have to worry about is she going to be pregnant? Or is she going to have Genital Herpes? All these things together are going to weight down on our relationship. I also understand there are to sides of the story and I feel very bad for Jason's wife being put through the same thing. As of now it is undecided if Jennifer and I will be staying together or get a divorce, it will take time to decide that. I admit I had alot of anger for Jason when I first found out, not saying it is gone. But I would appreciate it if he never contacts myself or my family and I am aware that those precautions have already taken place. I am not threatening Jason in anyway but I don't know what I will do if I ever find out who he is or what he looks like. Just remember these are just precautions I want taken, not saying I am unstable in anyway the emotions are speaking right now. Don't get me wrong Jennifer has done a lot wrong too. I don't know when I will be able to look at her the same. The trust and respect has been thrown out the window as of this point. I have a lot of personal issue that I will have to deal with. I know Jennifer loves working for this company and she asked me not to walk away from it but I am unsure at this point what I want her to do. I feel like she has put so much work into it but has not got anything in return. I know she has been promised a lot but I feel like this company has taken more money from my income that she has got in return. I feel like it has taken my relationship away from me. I don't know much about this company, I was told a little about it before by Jason but that is it. I almost feel like they were professional at work but then he put Jennifer in vulnerable position because he was her boss. She hasn't been with me since January so of course she was lonely. I don't think it is very professional for a company to have all their employee drinking together. I understand a company party on occasion but I believe there was multiple time where I called my wife and everyone was drinking 2 or 3 times that I can recall. Alcohol can make people do things they will regret and should not be taken lightly especially with employee's that work together. It doesn't make a very safe work enviorenment . Don't get me wrong I like to drink to but from my prespective it was like a bunch of college kids were partying. I understand you are the majority owner of this company and many other but maybe there should be some new guidelines or regulations that should be put in place. I apologize for the getting into detail on this situation. It is hard to be in a Leadership position such as yours and to have to deal with all of this believe me I know from my experience in the military. From what research I have done on the company it looks very successful and has a lot of pride in it's product. I did not mean to come off in a very aggressive attitude towards your company I had just found out 12 hours prior what had happened and I felt like I needed to do something. Again I would like to apologize for the details I have told you regarding this. And again I thank you for being here for a neutral party to be able to discuss this situation. It will take some time but I will give you a call to talk more.


I then recived this email about 4 hours later:

Scott,

Please disregard the email that was just sent to you I have found out that this was the wrong place to be sending it to. Thank you very much.


The title of the second email was "Please do not read previous email!"


Not only did it go to someone is wasnt suppose to, it didnt even go to the right company...I dont know this guy, never heard of him and dont know how he got my email addy....Anyone top this?

UpSideDown

pjtradeking wrote:

Not only did it go to someone is wasnt suppose to, it didnt even go to the right company...I dont know this guy, never heard of him and dont know how he got my email addy....Anyone top this?

I don't see anyone topping this in the near future.

he still stands

Jesus, I'd cheat on him, too. I'd probably do it with someone WITHOUT herpes, whom I didn't work with, and a girl. Geez, what a wimpy little douche.

And no, I can't top that. But that isn't really about etiquette; it is more of a touchstone for pitiful tragedy and bad spelling.

iluvcats

know1 wrote:

I almost think email should be banned at work since nobody knows how to use it. The lists of illogical things people do with it is almost endless.

+100 to you and comebackgirl

pjtradeking

he still stands wrote:

Jesus, I'd cheat on him, too. I'd probably do it with someone WITHOUT herpes, whom I didn't work with, and a girl. Geez, what a wimpy little douche.

And no, I can't top that. But that isn't really about etiquette; it is more of a touchstone for pitiful tragedy and bad spelling.

I know it wasnt about etiquette persay, but I thought it was close enough for a little laugh...

JOEJOEJOE

pjtradeking wrote:

I recieved the following email about 3 weeks ago:



Scott,

Thank you for the quick response regarding this situation. It was a very hard thing to hear and take in. I am very upset at my wife and Jason ( I believe that is his name). This was such an irresponsible act on both of their parts. They should never put themselves in such a vulnerable position. The thing that upsets me the most and I don't mean to get into detail but there was no protection i.e.(Condom). Also the fact that Jason has Genital Herpes is very upseting because that is more stress to deal with. Now I have to worry about is she going to be pregnant? Or is she going to have Genital Herpes? All these things together are going to weight down on our relationship. I also understand there are to sides of the story and I feel very bad for Jason's wife being put through the same thing. As of now it is undecided if Jennifer and I will be staying together or get a divorce, it will take time to decide that. I admit I had alot of anger for Jason when I first found out, not saying it is gone. But I would appreciate it if he never contacts myself or my family and I am aware that those precautions have already taken place. I am not threatening Jason in anyway but I don't know what I will do if I ever find out who he is or what he looks like. Just remember these are just precautions I want taken, not saying I am unstable in anyway the emotions are speaking right now. Don't get me wrong Jennifer has done a lot wrong too. I don't know when I will be able to look at her the same. The trust and respect has been thrown out the window as of this point. I have a lot of personal issue that I will have to deal with. I know Jennifer loves working for this company and she asked me not to walk away from it but I am unsure at this point what I want her to do. I feel like she has put so much work into it but has not got anything in return. I know she has been promised a lot but I feel like this company has taken more money from my income that she has got in return. I feel like it has taken my relationship away from me. I don't know much about this company, I was told a little about it before by Jason but that is it. I almost feel like they were professional at work but then he put Jennifer in vulnerable position because he was her boss. She hasn't been with me since January so of course she was lonely. I don't think it is very professional for a company to have all their employee drinking together. I understand a company party on occasion but I believe there was multiple time where I called my wife and everyone was drinking 2 or 3 times that I can recall. Alcohol can make people do things they will regret and should not be taken lightly especially with employee's that work together. It doesn't make a very safe work enviorenment . Don't get me wrong I like to drink to but from my prespective it was like a bunch of college kids were partying. I understand you are the majority owner of this company and many other but maybe there should be some new guidelines or regulations that should be put in place. I apologize for the getting into detail on this situation. It is hard to be in a Leadership position such as yours and to have to deal with all of this believe me I know from my experience in the military. From what research I have done on the company it looks very successful and has a lot of pride in it's product. I did not mean to come off in a very aggressive attitude towards your company I had just found out 12 hours prior what had happened and I felt like I needed to do something. Again I would like to apologize for the details I have told you regarding this. And again I thank you for being here for a neutral party to be able to discuss this situation. It will take some time but I will give you a call to talk more.


I then recived this email about 4 hours later:

Scott,

Please disregard the email that was just sent to you I have found out that this was the wrong place to be sending it to. Thank you very much.


The title of the second email was "Please do not read previous email!"


Not only did it go to someone is wasnt suppose to, it didnt even go to the right company...I dont know this guy, never heard of him and dont know how he got my email addy....Anyone top this?

Very unfortunate situation for the sender, but I bet you could get rich by blackmailing some of the people mentioned!

A great reply would have been:

Besides the herpes scare, how is everything else going with you and the Mrs.?

pjtradeking

JOEJOEJOE wrote:

pjtradeking wrote:

I recieved the following email about 3 weeks ago:



Scott,

Thank you for the quick response regarding this situation. It was a very hard thing to hear and take in. I am very upset at my wife and Jason ( I believe that is his name). This was such an irresponsible act on both of their parts. They should never put themselves in such a vulnerable position. The thing that upsets me the most and I don't mean to get into detail but there was no protection i.e.(Condom). Also the fact that Jason has Genital Herpes is very upseting because that is more stress to deal with. Now I have to worry about is she going to be pregnant? Or is she going to have Genital Herpes? All these things together are going to weight down on our relationship. I also understand there are to sides of the story and I feel very bad for Jason's wife being put through the same thing. As of now it is undecided if Jennifer and I will be staying together or get a divorce, it will take time to decide that. I admit I had alot of anger for Jason when I first found out, not saying it is gone. But I would appreciate it if he never contacts myself or my family and I am aware that those precautions have already taken place. I am not threatening Jason in anyway but I don't know what I will do if I ever find out who he is or what he looks like. Just remember these are just precautions I want taken, not saying I am unstable in anyway the emotions are speaking right now. Don't get me wrong Jennifer has done a lot wrong too. I don't know when I will be able to look at her the same. The trust and respect has been thrown out the window as of this point. I have a lot of personal issue that I will have to deal with. I know Jennifer loves working for this company and she asked me not to walk away from it but I am unsure at this point what I want her to do. I feel like she has put so much work into it but has not got anything in return. I know she has been promised a lot but I feel like this company has taken more money from my income that she has got in return. I feel like it has taken my relationship away from me. I don't know much about this company, I was told a little about it before by Jason but that is it. I almost feel like they were professional at work but then he put Jennifer in vulnerable position because he was her boss. She hasn't been with me since January so of course she was lonely. I don't think it is very professional for a company to have all their employee drinking together. I understand a company party on occasion but I believe there was multiple time where I called my wife and everyone was drinking 2 or 3 times that I can recall. Alcohol can make people do things they will regret and should not be taken lightly especially with employee's that work together. It doesn't make a very safe work enviorenment . Don't get me wrong I like to drink to but from my prespective it was like a bunch of college kids were partying. I understand you are the majority owner of this company and many other but maybe there should be some new guidelines or regulations that should be put in place. I apologize for the getting into detail on this situation. It is hard to be in a Leadership position such as yours and to have to deal with all of this believe me I know from my experience in the military. From what research I have done on the company it looks very successful and has a lot of pride in it's product. I did not mean to come off in a very aggressive attitude towards your company I had just found out 12 hours prior what had happened and I felt like I needed to do something. Again I would like to apologize for the details I have told you regarding this. And again I thank you for being here for a neutral party to be able to discuss this situation. It will take some time but I will give you a call to talk more.


I then recived this email about 4 hours later:

Scott,

Please disregard the email that was just sent to you I have found out that this was the wrong place to be sending it to. Thank you very much.


The title of the second email was "Please do not read previous email!"


Not only did it go to someone is wasnt suppose to, it didnt even go to the right company...I dont know this guy, never heard of him and dont know how he got my email addy....Anyone top this?

Very unfortunate situation for the sender, but I bet you could get rich by blackmailing some of the people mentioned!

A great reply would have been:

Besides the herpes scare, how is everything else going with you and the Mrs.?

LOL!!! I was so shocked I didnt know what to do or how to respond... :shock:

know1

HeavyHands wrote:

Bcc is your friend...

No it's not. It's is worse than not using it.

Thoughts_Arrive

I told off an idiot from an overseas office today.
He cc's me in on an email saying thank you to the freight agent.
Unnecessary emails piss me off.