Resources for Humans managing editor Celeste Blackburn reviews the book E-Mail: A Write It Well Guide — How to Write and Manage E-Mail In the Workplace by Janis Fisher Chan. An industrious HR person could not only benefit personally from reading this book and applying its theories but could also condense the information to create a instructional class or worksheet for employees.
We do it every day without a second thought. E-mail has become the most prevalent form of communication in the business world. Professionals are increasingly known by their “e-mail personas” as this medium replaces face-to-face meetings and phone calls. Executives who once dictated letters to their secretaries now send their own e-mail from PCs, laptops, and Blackberries. In the space of a decade, all the rules have changed — and what we e-mail is, in the eyes of the recipients, who we are.
“It’s not uncommon to have only an e-mail relationship with certain colleagues — colleagues we may never meet in person or even on the phone”, asserts Janis Fisher Chan, author of E-Mail: A Write It Well Guide–How to Write and Manage E-Mail in the Workplace
E-mail also affects careers by affecting productivity. You can get lots of “bang for your buck” — e-mail lets you send a message to dozens of colleagues everywhere with the click of a mouse. But on the other side of the efficiency coin, you can spend the better part of every day bogged down in unanswered e-mail piling up in your in box.
In short, e-mail is a double-edged sword. Done well, it’s a powerful business tool. Done poorly, it causes serious problems for individuals and organizations alike. Chan’s book acknowledges the pros and cons of e-mail and offers strategies for making the most of your e-mail time and making sure that the e-mail you write gets the results you want. It’s the kind of book you wish all the employees in your company would read and take to heart. After all, that would mean no more embarrassing “reply all” snafus or poorly written or inappropriate documents that become permanent record. An industrious HR leader would be able to read the book and boil down its most important points into some sort of lunch-time seminar or worksheet for the rest of the employees in the company.
Celeste Blackburn is managing editor of HR Insight and Diversity Insight. She has taught composition at the collegiate level and worked as a journalist.