Work emails are vastly different from personal emails. Treating work emails like personal emails will render them ineffective because they will not be taken seriously nor understood. Here are some tips to help you write emails that actually accomplish something and reduce your workload.
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1. Focus
Impart the information and be done with it. This is not the time nor place to chat; if the ten o’clock meeting has been changed to 9:30, send one bulk email to all of the affected parties. Simply state the meeting time has changed.
2. Maintain A Business Tone
Psychology Today points out how tone may be misinterpreted in work emails. For example, responding to an email question with “yep” gives a very different impression than writing “Yes.” The former indicates you don’t take work or the question seriously; the latter is a business-appropriate answer.
This does not mean you must be stuffy; rather, maintain at least a low level of formality to show that you take the work seriously.
3. Remember You Have No Privacy
Never assume an email written via a work email address is private. You may not know who has access to it.
Never assume an email written to a workmate is private. Even though some employees may choose to use their personal email to send or receive work-related messages, emails you send to workmates may get shared with other colleagues or bosses. Do not assume the content of your email message is private.
4. Proofread
A brief, businesslike note should still be proofread, especially if you are new or writing to somebody who is not familiar with the quality of your work. Little typos such as “youre” instead of “you’re” may make a big, negative impression. Proofread.
5. No Emoticons
Don’t even think about it. The same goes for “text speech” such as “lol.”
Tell Us What You Think
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