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Date Posted: 18:30:30 08/26/02 Mon
Author: Kiesha Elix
Subject: Re: Topic 2--Tell us three of the worse emails that you have received in relation to work!
In reply to: Ken Harley 's message, "Topic 2--Tell us three of the worse emails that you have received in relation to work!" on 15:32:23 08/21/02 Wed

>Why were the emails bad or frustrating for you in your
>business context? What could the writer of the email
>done better in the email? Use citations from your
>books and other materials to strengthen your answers.


All three of the worst emails that I have received in relation to work, came from my manager.

The first one was a response that she sent to me inquiring about taking vacation time off. The original message was her informing the staff that we needed to, if we hadn't already, make arrangements to schedule the rest of our time off since year-end was quickly approaching.

I responded to her that I was thinking about using certain days in a particular month. I wanted her to know that planning vacation was definitely on my mind, but I hadn't set any firm dates yet.

Her response to me was, "In the future I would appreciate it you asked for time off instead of simply stating when you will be gone." Now, I never said that I was going to be gone on any particular day, so there wasn't anything for me to "ask" for. I just wanted to let her know that I was just thinking about a certain time, nothing more and nothing less.

This was a very difficult situation to deal with. As many times I read and re-read my response to her original message, I still couldn't see how she came to the conclusion that I was demanding time off. I am not a demanding person. I think that if she were to put herself in my shoes (see, "Put Yourself in the Recipient's Shoes" in Chapter 2) she could have figured that out. Perhaps she could have simply asked me if I was wanting those days off or if I was just keeping her in the loop of what I was thinking. It never hurts to ask a question. Things could have been made clearer on both sides of this situation and saved headaches for all involved.

The second e-mail she sent to me was in regards to an agenda she sent to the team regarding a meeting we were going to have the next day. She stated in her message that she would appreciate it if we would take a look at the agenda and let her know if she had omitted anything or if anything needed to be changed.

I reviewed the document and there were some items that I felt needed to be listed elsewhere on the agenda for organizational purposes. I didn't state this fact to her, I put it to her in a question format to see what her thoughts were since I could have been entirely mistaken.

She misinterpreted my message by commenting on everything but the suggestion that I had. We just went to the meeting the next day with a revised agenda that just happened to include the changes I had asked earlier if they needed to happen. Here I think that she failed to, as Chapter 2 in Elements of E-Mail Style, "Deliver Information Efficiently".

The third worst e-mail that I have received in relation to work, of course once again involves my manager. She sent me a message asking me to deliver certain information to her when I was finished finding out all the necessary answers for a project I was working on. I responded with a, "as soon as I have the information I will forward it onto you." I subsequently received a phone call from her asking me to stop by her office.

She had taken that simple statement, and read attitude into it and wanted to talk to be about it. I thought that my response to her original message would have been a perfect example of Making Responding Easy (Chapter 2 of The Elements of E-mail Style), but evidently I was wrong. Needless to say, I had to endure a 10 minute conversation explaining that the message I wrote was not emotionally induced and that she misread my e-mail response because I was just letting her know that I would provide the information she requested. I don't know of another way I could have responded to her message. After reading the first two chapters in The Elements of E-mail Style, I still don't know what the best course of action should have been.

Unfortunately, the saga continues.

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Replies:

  • Re: Topic 2--Tell us three of the worse emails that you have received in relation to work! -- Decla Tyler-Simpson, 19:59:20 08/26/02 Mon
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