By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady
BLR CEO and founder Bob Brady recently wrote about some of the more annoying aspects of meetings and e-mail exchanges, and he asked you to send in your top e-mail annoyances. Boy, did he ever push a hot button!
Here is just sampling of the responses we received. We had many similar complaints, and space limitations prevent us from including all of them, so we’re sorry if yours does not appear here. But thanks to everyone for your feedback—and thanks for not blindly forwarding, “replying to all,” or showing up in person 5 minutes later to ask if we had received your e-mail!
Thank you. No, thank you!
“I hate the e-mail reply of ‘Thank you,’” wrote Jeanne Gorski. “Unless you have more to communicate to me, albeit well intended, your e-mail is a waste of time!”
“My pet peeve with e-mail would be the confirmation ‘thanks’ e-mails that I receive,” echoed Martha Reed. “If all you have to say is ‘thanks,’ skip it, please!”
Try HR.BLR.com at no cost or risk and keep the special report, Critical HR Recordkeeping, no matter what you decide. Get the details.
Forward, forward, forward …
“The forward, forward, forward e-mails are an aggravation since you have to scroll down forever before you finally get to the information you need to read,” wrote Deborah Glorioso. “I know some people who immediately delete these due to the chance of getting a virus more easily.”
Forward this e-mail and something good will happen.
“The ones that chide you to send it to ‘X’ number of people in ‘X’ number of hours and something good will happen, the more people the sooner,” wrote Kristina Ross. “Or something really bad will happen if you do not forward.”
“When you are asked to forward the e-mail to at least 10 people or you will miss out on a miracle, something good happening to you, etc.,” wrote Deborah Glorioso. “I feel like I am wishing something less than desirable on someone when I ask them to send to 10 or more [friends]. What if they don’t have 10 or more?”
“‘Send this e-mail to 2,000 people or you will have bad luck for the rest of your life.’ This has to be the most annoying of all e-mails I receive, and if this doesn’t top the list, then I look forward to what does,” wrote Katharine Grimm.
Did you get my e-mail yet???
“My pet peeve with e-mail—well, this could be more with the person—is when someone e-mails and then walks over to your desk/office and asks if you saw their e-mail and you say no, because you just received it, so they tell you what they wrote in the e-mail,” wrote Michelle Kearn. “SOOOO ANNOYING!!!! And such a waste of time for both parties.”
“My biggest gripe is those e-mailers who, within 5 minutes or less of sending the e-mail, are at your desk asking if you got it!” wrote Darcy Carroll. “It’s hard to believe, but I did work with a gentleman who became well known at my former organization for this offense. His name was Bob. We nicknamed his correspondence “b-mail.”
I’m sure everyone will want to read this …
“My biggest e-mail peeve is people who hit ‘forward’ or ‘reply all’ without considering all the recipients,” wrote Karen J. Hawkins. “I have received some e-mails like that, and I know the sender did not intend for everyone to see the information! Make sure you know who is on the address list before you hit ‘send’!”
You can read, can’t you?
“My biggest pet peeve about e-mail is when I am very clear and thorough in my message, and the recipient reads it too fast (probably because they are trying to get through their in-box of 100 messages) and responds with questions that are clearly answered in my e-mail,” wrote Michelle Mikrut. “I then have to ask myself, why did I even bother?”
“Co-workers who can’t be bothered to read the e-mail trail (history), but instead expect you to re-state everything when you send it to them,” wrote Heidi Marsh. “You can tell because they usually reply very quickly asking for the same info that is already contained in the body of the e-mail trail. Hope I don’t sound petty, but this gets annoying because in essence it communicates that they think their time is more valuable than my time.”
Mystery e-mails
Joe Peet sent a list of no less than seven e-mail aggravations. Topping his list was “E-mail sent without a ‘Subject’ listed in the subject field.” Other “Peet peeves” included excessively long e-mails, e-mails that contain text-message shorthand, e-mails with colorful backgrounds and fonts that make the text impossible to read, and our next category …
Enough already! Let’s meet.
I do believe once an e-mail chain has gone so far, the people involved need to gather and talk,” wrote Michelle Kearn. “If someone is off-site, then a conference call is in order. Sometimes e-mail can convey the wrong message, and verbal communication needs to happen to get clarity.”
But my feet hurt …
Carrie Alexander one-upped Joe Peet with a list of eight e-mail annoyances. In addition to several listed above, she also included “Next-door e-mails … get up and walk to them and discuss.”
See what everyone’s talking about! Check out BLR’s remarkable everything-you-need-for-HR website, HR.BLR.com, at no cost or risk, and get a complimentary special report! Get more info.
I read it so it must be true.
Another submitted by Katharine Grimm was “Forwarding consumer warnings or the latest in criminal [modus operandi] without checking out the validity first.” [Editor’s note: Can you say Snopes.com?]
That’s all that we have room for today. Again, thanks to all of you who responded.
As to Bob’s question about whether you would favor an “e-mail-less Friday” rule, some of you thought it was funny, others thought it a terrible idea, and most thought that it simply wouldn’t work.
While I chuckled at many of the pet-peeves listed, my e-pinion is that you all are far too touchy! I was taught to always say, “Thank you” when grateful for a service or what-not. Furthermore, when I’ve assisted someone with information, I appreciate the confirmation that they have indeed received the information.
I didn’t see my biggest pet peeve – The subordinate who forwards a long email string to the boss and assumes this is keeping the boss informed, all without a summary and a simple statement beginning with “This is why I’m sending this to you and what you need to know…”
Our HR staff currently practices e-mail-less Wednesday mornings. We have been doing this for about 2 months with tremendous success. Not only does it promote actual communication between colleagues, it allows you the opportunity to leave your desk and be visable to the rest of the organization. There have been several other areas of the organization who have commented and taken notice to this current practice and are talking about implementing the same procedure. Think of all the times when your message has been mis-construed due to a typo, the mood of the recipient, the “tone” of your e-mail, etc. All of this could have been avoided with a phone call or a brief visit to answer/ask all your questions.