Etiquette

But leave me out of the discussion… We all know the patron Saint of spreading your message to the world: But, lets be cognizant of our surroundings. Everyone wants to hear your announcement. But, maybe, they do not want to be a part of the overall discussion. More often these days folks are copying God and country on every e-mail that goes out. Most of these e-mails are announcements that require little to no feedback. Even though that is the case there is always someone who hits that beloved reply all button to give a quick and polite Thanks or Gotcha. ...

…and you can let me know about yours. Just don’t blow up my calendar. Even with all the super cool collaboration tools that are available today, a lot of management types still rely on the old faithful Outlook Calendar. They ask that you send out an invite for your vacation so that all the key stakeholders are aware of the time you will be out of the office. I will admit, I still do this today and I encourage my staff to do the same. It was beat into me at GE and I just cannot break the habit. ...

…Or Learning to Show Others You Appreciate Their Time… I often find myself receiving forwarded e-mails with little to no context or prior conversation. This baffles me. How could someone feel ok forwarding me an e-mail chain of twenty or so messages and the only notes from the sender is their automated signature block? I immediately trash these… Then comes the inevitable drive-by, “Hey, did you get that e-mail I forwarded you?” Nope, never received it. If someone needs an explanation to make them feel better I will say something like I may have seen it, but at a glance it looked like it was an accidental forward and I canned it. ...