Enjoying Your Work Richard Brislin

The speed of e-mail is both a blessing and a curse

Twenty years ago, e-mail was an informal tool for quick messages and exchanges of information. Today, e-mail often substitutes for yesterday's formal communications through stationary, envelopes, stamps, and post office workers who brave the possibility of barking dogs.

The speed of communication through cyberspace is a great blessing. People receive an invitation to an important meeting that is sent through the use of a distribution list composed of 20 people. Twenty years ago, invitations to a similar meeting would have required 20 letters or phone calls.

Today, messages can be sent to a distribution list in less than a minute. Recipients can type, "I can come," press "return," and let people know of their plans in fewer than 10 seconds.

In addition to its benefits, the convenience and speed of e-mail also has a downside. People can write messages and send them so quickly that they sometimes do not invest an appropriate amount of time in assuring message clarity.

Further, message senders often forget that they make an impression on recipients. Carelessly worded messages, full of grammatical errors and misspellings, may lead recipients to conclude that the sender is poorly educated, ignorant, or both.

Another problem is that since e-mail has developed as a major communication tool in a short amount of time, norms for proper use are not well-established. The writers of etiquette books have spent decades developing norms for traditional stationary and envelope communications. These include norms for salutations that depend on how well the sender knows the receiver. The norms also include appropriate introductory sentences, phrases that are wise to avoid in letters meant to be cordial, and suitable closings.

E-mail has been in common use for about 15 years, and etiquette writers have not yet had the opportunity to vet various phrases that have become commonplace. As a result, senders can irritate recipients by using certain phrases that not all people consider appropriate and polite.

One such phrase occurs after people send an e-mail requesting help from a recipient. The request might be to send some materials, fill out a questionnaire or to provide information on job openings. Senders sometimes use the phrase, "Thanking you in advance, I look forward to receiving your response." I find use of this phrase rude. If someone takes the time to respond to an e-mail with materials or information, then they deserved to be thanked after they perform these favors.

People sometimes use another phrase I dislike when they want detailed information about an issue. They e-mail me, "I will be in Honolulu next week and I would like to meet and to pick your brain." This phrase comes across as indicative of a callous person and as typical of someone who wants to exploit others. Fundraisers do not e-mail wealthy people and say, "I'd like to meet and get a lot of money from you." People want to feel that they consist of more than their money and their information, just as physically attractive people want to be perceived as having assets other than their good looks. People with information are often willing to share it with others, but they do not want to feel exploited while doing so.

There are a few norms for e-mail use that have become more formal for some people but that have remained informal for others. For some unknown reason, people once were told to be highly informal when greeting others in the first line of their messages. Even if a sender was unknown to the recipient, a salutation such as "Hi Betty" was considered appropriate. Given that e-mail messages today may be a person's only contact with recipients, a retreat to etiquette books for proper ways of addressing others who are not close acquaintances is wise.