After horror stories and useless "Thank you" messages, let's look at e-mail as a corporate weapon. Here is the first encounter of the author with the kind of battle that can be started -- so fast -- by e-mail.
It happened while I was a working at a large Internet start-up in the mid-1990s. My boss asked me to write a proposal for a partnership between our company and a major East Coast media firm. It was my chance to shine, perhaps even to earn a promotion.
I had just finished a first draft when a co-worker assisting me -- I'll call her "Joan" -- asked to see what I had written. So I e-mailed her a copy. The next thing I knew, she had forwarded my proposal, along with a note describing herself as the principal author, to the entire executive team managing the project.
I had been duped, and I felt humiliated. But I soon got my revenge. Later, while putting the finishing touches on the report, I got a call from Joan asking to see the updated version. "Sure," I said, and hung up the phone. I quickly finished and attached the report to an e-mail addressed to every VP and director I thought would be interested. This time it was clear that I was the one who had done all the work. I put Joan's name at the bottom of the distribution list and clicked "send." Game over.
Source: David Miller, Salon.com, May 9, 2002
Do you answer to your e-mails or not? When is it appropriate to stop an e-mail exchange full of "Thank you," "You're welcome," "Thanks again" and "No problem"?
At first, these questions look futile. But when you think about it, they are pretty serious. When you're engaged in a face-to-face or a telephone conversation, you can easily signal that the exchange is over. It's also possible with voice mail systems.
With e-mail, it's a whole different story.
Fortunately, The New York Times offers some ideas and suggestions to put an end to this kind of exchange, without being rude or impolite. These suggestions are contained in "`No Reply Needed': Cutting Off the Conversation."
Source: Joyce Cohen, The New York Times, May 9, 2002
PC World gathered ten e-mail horror stories -- and I know you can add one or two of your own. Here is my preferred one:
"I met her at a company picnic, we traded stories about our repressed childhoods, and we soon became a couple. On a Sunday six months later, I proposed and she accepted. On a Thursday four days later, she broke up with me--via e-mail. She sat four cubicles down the hall from me.
"I now insist that women reject me in person. It saves Internet bandwidth."
PC World also addes a special section, "Seven Rules for Gaffe-Free E-Mails." Rules 1, 2 and 3 are identical: Always check the To field before you click Send.
I've been caught a number of times by this one. Some e-mail programs provide tools to automatically check several key fields of your messages. Some don't. So take this rule seriously.
Source: Robert Luhn, PCWorld.com, Apr. 29, 2002
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