I’ve had an email account for almost twenty years and I’m a software developer by day, as such I get a lot of email. Over the years I’ve developed a system of sorting and have a bunch of folders that handle a lot of annoyances that might fill up my inbox.
I don't do Inbox Zero
I also switch jobs every couple of years which means I don’t have the same level of rules and organization for work email. In fact my current 9 to 5 limits me to 500mb of email (yes I realize that 1994 called and they want their harddrive back). This means that I have to manually scan each email that arrives in my inbox. Here are a few things that will make me flip off my monitor and mock you behind your back.
Using the priority marker on email. First off I get to decide my priorities for the day, you don’t. Secondly, I have yet to receive an email marked high priority that was actually a priority. I wish they charged a hefty fee to send “priority emails,” it would make people think twice before sending them.- Legal disclaimers in your email.
The information contained in this communication may be confidential and is intended only for the use of the recipient(s) or entity(ies) named above. blah... blah.. threat, threat, threat
Really? First they mean absolutely nothing, have you EVER heard of someone in court because they didn’t follow the directives at the end of an email? Yeah, me neither. Secondly, if the information is confidential why are you sending it unencrypted? That is, at best, negligent.
When I get a message with a silly disclaimer I attach the following.This message (including any attachments) does NOT contain confidential information and may or may NOT have been intended for a specific
individual and is most likely purposeless, yet is protected by ninja garden gnomes. If you are not the intended recipient, you should read
this message as it will probably be funny and may contain juicy gossip. Any disclosure, copying, or distribution of this message, or the taking
of any action based on it, is strictly allowed and encouraged. - Email signatures that are longer than your message or contain images. I’m also glaring at people who use different fonts or colors.
- You’ve sent an email in error, if it was an obvious mistake you do nothing. If you must follow up send an apology email. You know what you shouldn’t do? Send a recall, it will be recalled only for the other people in your office who haven’t opened it AND use Outlook. Everyone else will get a second email that says you are recalling the first email. I’ll share with you an Internet Fact: Using Outlook’s message recall makes your mistake look four times worse. (QUAD-DAMAGE)
- “Replying all” to an office wide email informing you of something mundane like “The Second Microwave in the 10th Floor Kitchen isn’t Working” with “Thank you.”
- I used to get annoyed with top-posting but I realized it was a losing battle.
