I recently did a nationwide survey about annoying email habits. The results confirmed the responses in the Worktalk email trainings to the same question. Not surprisingly, “reply all” won the most-annoying top slot. However, a slew of responses fell under the general category of inappropriate email replies. Here is what people wrote:
Not Responding At All
- When people simply do not reply to your email—very annoying and unprofessional!
- Just as it is rude not to reply to a phone call, it is rude not to respond to an email, especially if it contained a request for action or information. if you don’t have the information or can’t give a response yet, it only takes a second to say so. Try to respond to all substantive emails within 24 hours.
Responding Inappropriately
- Not responding to numbered and/or bullet-pointed questions with the body of an email: they’re put there for a reason. If you’re a sales-person, it’s understandable that you only respond to the positive stuff and avoid the rest, but not for regular business people.
- Auto-signatures which make no sense (e.g. “Thank you! –Dave” when I’m say, complaining or sending a joke)
- People who use email to return phone calls. Phone calls should be returned by phone.
- Responding to a long, detailed email that requires thought with a single-word reply
- Using email as an instant-messaging platform. You’re presuming we all check and respond to email in real-time. That’s not what it’s for! If you need to get me a message instantly, there are better platforms.
- Adding recipients in the middle of the thread with no warning. When I do that, I always start the body of the email saying whom I have added and/or whom I have removed.
- Obviously not reading the entire email and replying asking a question that was already answered.
- Writing really long complicated emails where clearly a conversation/phone call would have been better.
- Threaded email conversations (more than 2 replies) are too much… these indicate that a call should be or should have been scheduled.
- Answering the first part of an email but not the rest, presumably because it was not read in its entirety.
- People who need to get the last word; e.g. I say “thanks” and the person feels compelled to come back with “you’re welcome”. Where does it end?
- Including an entire email chain, and rather than adding your comments at the top (with perhaps references to the material below), you insert comments throughout the pages-long chain of things. Do you really expect me to read through the whole thing fishing for your comments?
- People who type so quickly that I can’t really understand what they’re saying.
- Responses that don’t answer the question being asked, especially when it’s clear someone was just trying to get caught up on email while on their iPhone in an airport. If you’re not going to provide a thoughtful answer, wait until you can.
- People who use email to discuss difficult topics. Sensitive topics should be communicated by phone or in person. The tone of the message is sometimes lost in emails.
- Long e-mails – most of the time I view e-mail in the preview pane and do not scroll down very far. If it is important put in in Word as an attachment and let me know how important it is.
Note that many of these comments are responses to the first in Worktalk’s Ten Principles of Successful Email: Make sure that email is the correct medium for your message. Some messages are suitable for email, but many are done best in person or by phone.Using email as a texting mechanism annoys textophiles, and trying to resolve complex issues through email may mean the loss of a valued relationship.
Another common thread in these responses touches on an Email Land Mine that was covered in a previous post: Writing in haste. When you don’t take the time to read through an email, think about how you want to respond, and phrase your response carefully, your reader knows — and doesn’t appreciated being treated as a rush job.
I received many pages of responses to the simple question about annoying email habits. More will be shared in future posts, so we can make sure that we don’t become annoying email writers ourselves.
And while we’re on the question — what email habits annoy you most? Send me your pet peeves at lizd@worktalk.com.