Thursday, February 11, 2010

Revising Email Messages and Email Etiquette

To: sarah@work.net
From: bill@work.net
Cc: jim@work.net

Subject: Funds for a Training Trip

Hi Sara,

I am looking to go on a training trip, and I was hoping to receive money from the company to help pay for it. Do you know who is responsible for providing the funding?

Please get back to me as soon as possible if you know who I can ask about this matter. Thanks for your help.

Bill


Tone and Flaming
When sending an email, you should always maintain a polite, business tone. This company will not tolerate employees who attack, yell at, or insult customers or their colleagues through emails. If you are upset about a situation, do not send an email right away; to avoid sending an email while you are emotional, either take a walk, work on another project, or draft an email and revise it after you have calmed down. Also, emails that contain discriminatory jokes or may be offensive to others should not be sent. Finally, do not send an email to a fellow colleague that spreads rumors about or "puts down" others. Not only does the company consider emails like this to be unacceptable and a waste of working time, there is a chance that it will come back to harm you since you cannot control who an email gets forwarded to.

Attachments
When sending an email that contains attachments, please be considerate of the recipient. Keep in mind that the recipient may be working on a slower operating system, which means it would take them too long to download and open a big file. Also, please remember that not all programs are compatible on other computers, so send attachments as pdfs or files that are compatible with most other operating systems. If it is necessary to send an attachment with your email, please send as few as possible and only ones that are imperative; there is no need to send five attachments in one email, because it will take the recipient too long to download and open each one. When sending images in email attachments, please reduce the size of the picture so the file is smaller. Finally, remember not to send any attachments that may invade the confidentiality or privacy of this company, or its employees or customers.

Formatting
When drafting an email, please keep in mind that your email not only represents your work, but also this company. Please use a proper business format, so you and the company will maintain a professional reputation; an easy way to accomplish this would be to use the company's email template. Please include a proper header as well as a signature in all emails that you send. When sending an email, please do not include a long list of recipients in the To or Cc lines; instead, use a mailing list in order to make the email look more professional. Keep all of your emails short and to the point, and make sure that all emails are business related.

References
1. CNN.com:
2. Software Reference:
3. Telegraph.co.uk:

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