Sending emails is a quick and easy way of communicating with everyone within your work premises. But most of us do not have the right etiquette of sending formal emails. We often tend to use improper language in emails because we consider it the same as having a face-to-face conversation. But do not mistake your work email for a regular chatting medium.
All the emails that you send and receive are seen by your employer. The type of things you write in emails can create a lasting impression in the mind of your boss. Most importantly, do not use your work email for your personal mails. Avoid using the professional email to send or share casual stuff with your friends and family. Only access it to communicate work-related messages. A wrong email can even cost you your job loss. So you must know what you should and should not say in your work email. Let us have a look at a few of them.
#1. Informal Words
Professional emails should not be considered as a replacement for your chatting mediums. Use of informal words and slangs in work email is a definite NO here. It is not the platform to use text language or short forms for words like LOL, BTW, wassup and heya! This will create a very bad influence on others especially if someone senior at work makes use of such words. Also, usage of emoticons makes you look like a kid who just got out of school. So, avoid that as well when you are in the professional confines. You would not want people to mistake you for an unprofessional person. So, create a good impact with your words on others.
#2. Long Explanations
Time is everything and you do not want it to be wasted when you have a lot of work piling up on your desk. Nobody likes to read emails which are filled with unnecessary long explanations. If there is something that you want to convey to your boss or a colleague, keep the message crisp and to the point. If you want to give a reason for not submitting your work on time, let them know for example that you had a headache. Do not tell the entire process of feeling a headache and then taking a medicine. Nobody has got time for that. If you really want to discuss the details, walk up to the person and have a one-to-one discussion.
#3. Filing Resignation
We often happen to consider that filing a resignation via an email will look more professional than the word of mouth. But it is quite the opposite. You can be confused here thinking that if you can apply for the job through an email, why not leave the job the same way. Well, they are two different things. Also, you might be having a better chance of making the boss understand the reason of the resignation when you discuss things face-to-face. The words your boss reads on a computer screen might not show the same level of emotion that you might portray when you strike an inter-personal conversation. So try to avoid a resignation in an email.
#4. Extra Polite Words
We know that professional emails should be written in a polite way. But in an attempt to do that, we at times end up overdoing it. That makes our email look like a book of filler phrases. Phrases like "sorry to disturb you" or "hope you are not busy with something" or "let me know if I am wrong" will make you sound very unsure of yourself. You might only be trying to sound polite, but your colleague might interpret it as a sign of lack of experience and confidence. So whatever you say, do not end up questioning your decisions. Have a firm voice and poised tone while writing a professional email.
#5. Follow The Company's Trend
Every company has a different trend when it comes to communicating with the colleagues. Some companies will straight away ask to mind your work while at the office. They do not promote any employee relations during work hours. So you have to go with the policies and not ask things which are not related to work in your work emails. In a completely opposite environment, if you do not ask about someone's ailing family member, you will be considered rude. So it is better if you know the workplace you are working in so as to function in sync with everyone else and avoid yourself any unnecessary trouble.
#6. I Hate My Job
Do you often curse your job and your boss? We all do. That is a part of the job environment as it makes us feel better after bearing with their unreasonable deadlines. But it is not ethical to discuss these things with a fellow employee over an email through your work account. There is a high chance that your employer keeps a check on every email. You will be caught some day about these discussions. You might even lose your job. So avoid cussing your work in office emails. In case you are undergoing stress or workload pressure, have a discussion with your fellow colleague outside the office.
#7. Asking For A Raise
There is a high chance that your boss will not acknowledge you an email about salary raise as they come across a lot of such emails every day. Salary raise is something you should be discussing in person as it will leave a lasting impact as compared to an email. If you want to be taken seriously about this issue, then you must convey it by your actions. Sending an email about salary raise will not be much effective. Set up a meeting so that you can justify your request in person. Avoid doing so in an email.
#8. Sharing Private Stuff
Work emails are the worst way to share something confidential. Consider the odds of sending it to the wrong person. You can never undo that. So if there is something that you only want to share with one person, do not send it from work email. Emails are regularly monitored in every company; your employer will know what you are sharing in your emails. If possible, try to discuss it with the person concerned directly. This will avoid you from getting in a messy situation where you cannot explain yourself.
#9. Discussing Taking A Sick Leave
We all have done this at least once during our work life. We have to party with our friends but know that the boss won't agree to give a leave for that. So you cook a lie of falling ill, so that you can get a day off and you can plan some fun stuff with your pals. But do not discuss this over your work email mentioning that you will take a fake sick leave the next day. The chances are that your boss might just give you a permanent leave. So avoid discussing lying to your boss over your work email because you might get caught and the repurcussions will be way too ugly.
#10. Confessing A Mistake
You can commit some mistake while working in the office and it is natural to be scared of walking up to your boss to confess that you did it. But sending an email about it to avoid having confrontation is not the correct solution. If you want to confess something that you have done wrong, it should only be done in person, never over an email.
#11. Office Gossips
We love to gossip about the recent stories in the office because that is the only interesting thing to do in the office all day. But avoid doing that over your work emails. It is a big mistake if you are sharing stories of someone's affair or their recent divorce over emails. This will bring you to the bad eye of your employer, and you will have fewer chances of surviving in the office for long, forget about that pending promotion now.
#12. Conducting Personal Business
If your employer is aware of your side business and is okay with you doing it along with the job, that does not give you the right to send and receive emails related to it in work hours. You should never mix your personal business with your office. Mixing the emails of the two is an even bigger crime you are doing.
#13. Sending Jokes
Do not mistake your work email for a chatting medium where you can discuss and share funny jokes with your colleagues. It is not very professional of you to do that. Do not get in a state of shock if you do not get a positive response from people after having done that. Learn to separate your professional and personal life. If you are friends with your fellow employees, send them jokes over texting apps, not your work emails.
#14. Criticising People
There will always be people who you do not like and love to criticize about with other employees. But it is highly unprofessional to do back-bitching about someone over your work emails. It will create a negative impression about you on others. So avoid doing that at any cost.
We hope that you liked our suggestions about things that you should avoid in work emails. Let us know if you have any further points you want to add to this list. Leave your suggestion in the comment box below.
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When writing a work email there is utmost need of being precise about your message. Nobody has the time to read a lot of unnecessary sentences. So it becomes a bit of a task to put your words in the limited frame while not sounding too casual. So you have to master the skill of being concise and polite so as to not sound rude in your work emails. We just have to see how the email is going to be perceived by the other party in order to write it properly. A misworded email can make your entire hard work go to trash. Therefore it is always better to be safe than sorry. You should reread your email before hitting send. Because once it is sent, you cannot retrieve it back. All you will be left with is regret. Your colleague is never going to see you in the same respectful way again.
As you get into the network of a workplace you realize that it is not always possible to communicate in person with everybody. Hence, the need to use emails comes into the picture. For effective communication, you need to use the correct words. Do not address anybody in an informal way in a work email no matter if you are acquaintances with them. Also, double check whether you have attached the necessary documents in the email. That will save you from looking like a fool. Making your email long is another no in official areas. That is not time-efficient for both sender and recipient. Make life easier for both by keeping the message short and meaningful. There is no point adding useless details when your work can be done even when you eliminate them. Another big error that we end up making is abbreviating our words. That might not be entirely our fault. After all, we spend most of our time chatting on those apps. Email does not seem any different when we sit typing. But you should avoid making this grave mistake in a work email. Another bad habit we have gotten ourselves into is punctuating even when not needed. I keep getting emails from my employees who use punctuation mark in every sentence that they want to highlight. After some lines, it starts looking very unprofessional. Some of the interns had gone to the next level of being casual by adding to those smileys at the end. I wanted to tell them to leave the emotions outside the work email. But probably they were too new to already know that.
I also wish that my employees learned when not to loop me in the emails. Thanks to their lack of knowledge, my inbox is always flooded with emails which I have no use of. So you should always know who all you should loop in your emails instead of just blankly including everyone. Be a sensible employee, not a robot. We all have made these silly mistakes at least once. And that is okay because after all, we are humans. But try to avoid them the next time and your boss will thank you for being careful.