The seven deadly sins of email

Email has revolutionised communication, making it simpler and faster for businesses to communicate. For most people, the idea of trying to run a company without email seems absurd in the current business climate.

But this digital dependency comes at a price. Daily global email traffic is expected to almost double by 2006 – from 31 billion today to 60 billion, according to IT analyst firm IDC. Such huge volumes mean that email consumes more and more of the average employee’s working day – with devastating implications for workplace productivity.

The time we spend sending – and responding to – emails is extremely expensive for business. Recent research by Emphasis among senior staff in some of the UK’s Big Four firms reveals that they spend an average of £10,000 per person annually on paying people to read and write emails.

Most of us have developed bad habits because of the sheer convenience of the medium. Clearly, we need to find ways of cutting down on email traffic and managing it more efficiently.

Ingrained habits are difficult to change in any organisation, but you have to start somewhere. There are common email pitfalls that everyone in business falls into that only contribute to the email deluge. But a few simple rules for email use and email style can make all the difference. Consider these seven deadly sins of email and how to avoid them.

Copying emails unnecessarily to colleagues
Needlessly long distribution lists are a major cause of the email log jam and often distract employees from their core work. One of the main reasons for endless ‘cc-ing’ of colleagues and incessant ‘fyi’ forwarding is that staff feel they are covering their backs by including others – often their seniors – on email trails.

This is a sad reflection of the blame culture in many organisations and needs to be addressed at a more fundamental level. It also negates the point of team members having their own responsibilities.

Cultural issues aside, it is important to encourage staff to distribute emails only to those who really need to see them.

Using email for complex or emotive issues
Email may be convenient, but it’s also easy to misinterpret, lacking the visual clues of face-to-face communications. You simply cannot judge if it has elicited a bad response or not.

It may seem convenient for circulating a document to glean input from multiple people, but it can spark off an email frenzy that you will find hard to cope with. There’s nothing like ‘email noise’ – ten messages from ten recipients in two hours, all containing conflicting views – to stress you out. In this scenario, it may be more sensible to circulate the document and arrange a follow-up meeting to discuss views.

Or if it’s patently something that requires discussion, just pick up the phone!

Similarly, we’ve all heard the horror stories of bosses announcing redundancies by email. A redundancy is never going to be good news, but receiving notification of it by email just adds insult to injury. Likewise appraisals or a request for a pay rise. It really doesn’t make sense to broach these subjects on email. They are much better dealt with face to face, or at least with a memo or letter.

Email is best suited to simple communications, such as scheduling meetings and circulating minutes or updates. It isn’t a substitute for face-to-face or phone communications. Remember that informal networks – a chat around the water cooler – remain fundamental to working life.

Being too informal
Although it is tempting to view email as a form of electronic chatting, it is dangerous to do so. Avoid being overly informal when writing emails to people you don’t know very well. Be led by them when it comes to style.

Email is still business communication after all and if you are communicating externally, remember that you are representing your company. You don’t want to risk your company’s reputation by being inappropriately relaxed, so it’s better to let the recipient make the first move to ascertain the required tone and you can follow suit.

Hitting the reply all button by mistake
This fits well with the previous point. Because email is quick and viewed as a less formal medium than letters or memos, people can be careless in their eagerness to reply.

We all know stories about people who have mistakenly hit the reply all button, criticising the sender or one of the recipients, when they only meant the email to go to a selected few. This needs to be avoided at all costs. Mistakes like this could cause much embarrassment and even jeopardise your career.

Being too verbose
A short and simple email is more likely to get the recipient’s attention, rather than being stored until he or she has longer to look at it. People can always print off a more detailed attachment if it’s an issue that requires time and thought. Complex documents are easier to read offline. But avoid being unnecessarily curt in your email communications – you may risk offending the recipient.

Sending structureless messages
If your message has to be longer, use sub-heads and short paragraphs to add structure and make it easier to digest. People take longer to read information on screen, so you need to make the process as easy as possible for them. Use capitals for sub-heads, rather than relying on HTML formatting (not everyone has this facility). But don’t write your whole message in caps as it will sound ANGRY.

Subscribing to email publications you don’t read
We all sign up to e-zines and email newsletters we never read. Whilst we feel that we ought to subscribe to the latest accountancy newsletter and keep abreast of developments in our industry, our daily working life may mean that we simply don’t get time to read them. If that’s the case, unsubscribe. Such emails will only clutter up your inbox and add to the already overwhelming sense of email noise.

There’s no doubt that email can be a scourge on productivity and an added source of stress. Used inappropriately, it can even cause embarrassment and elicit unintended responses. But follow a few simple rules and apply a bit of self-discipline, and email can live up to its promise of being a fast – and efficient – communications tool.

Robert Ashton is a senior consultant with Emphasis Training, which runs courses on how to improve email efficiency and writing courses for accountants

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