When you boil it all down, I am really a nice guy. I may be a little money-driven, but all-in-all, I am a decent person. Tonight I noticed that a brand new blog linked to Dumb Little Man and I believe it was a legitimate link. What I mean is that I believe this person actually realizes some value when she reads our "stuff". I don't do this often (or ever really) but I want to draw some attention to the site to see if we can help out.
The site is named The Executive Assistant’s Tool Box and it was just started this week! The writer's focus is, as stated, making life a little easier for administrative assistants. You guys know who these people are, there are the one's that deal with our bosses every god-forsaken, miserable, thankless wonderful day.
After the intro post, this blogger lists a handful E-mail etiquette quips that are pretty good. I will share 2 of them but honestly I want you to hit the site and read the rest.
Sending Email Instead of Talking.
Be careful not to fall into the trap of sending email instead of having a real face to face conversation. Building strong social networks at work is important and it just can’t be done over email. As my boss says, “Wear out the carpet!”. That means, don’t be shy about going to visit people’s offices with your questions. Talking face to face gets the point across much easier and much faster most of the time. Send it in email if you need a paper record of the conversation. Otherwise, talk and get to know your co-workers. It makes work more fun and it improves communication immensely. Likewise, if you find yourself writing a page long email to a client, stop and pick up the phone instead.
CC’ ing too many people (or the same person too many times).
Only CC the people who really need to know what the email is about. You don’t want to flood your boss’s inbox with things he’s not really concerned about. When I first started, I wanted to show my boss that I was doing what he asked me to do so I always sent him a copy of my emails. Then, the responder always hit “reply all” and before he knew it, he was getting multiple emails that had no action required for him. Eventually, he was totally annoyed with seeing all my correspondence and I had to stop. I only do it now for critical things that he may need to know I’ve corresponded on or things he has to take action on.
You can get the rest by reading, "5 E-Mail Etiquette Mistakes to Avoid" at The Executive Assistant’s Tool Box.
E-Mail Etiquette From an Admin
