ITT: Post your biggest pet peeves related to email etiquette (or other examples of bothersome unprofessionalism in the workplace)
- Thread starter brainchild
- Start date
People who send an IM or Email that is just "Hey, have a minute" or "Can you help me with something" and then absolutely no context what-so-ever or further response until you answer them back. Like how am I supposed to know if I can help you if you give me no information. And I'll get to your message when I have a minute, so just give me the context up-front and I can get an answer to you sooner.
Oh man, another. I end my emails with:
Thanks,
David
Some scum bags will then reply "Hi Dave"
What universe are they living in?
Thanks,
David
Some scum bags will then reply "Hi Dave"
What universe are they living in?
I don't get this. Do you text people before calling? If they're busy they won't pick up. Check to see if they're already on a call or presenting, sure, but if green or away? Fair game.
I see your point. However...
Receiving calls out of the blue is the most annoying thing. Especially when Jabber's an option, at least where I work. Calls interrupt everything I'm doing and expect me to provide answers without time to engage in any prep work. Even "one quick question" turns into half an hour that I can't spare. I've got several clients, meaning I can't really deflect sometimes, even if I'm relatively senior.
Just schedule time with me. I'll make the time. Don't call unannounced.
Only thing worse are voicemails from colleagues, which are utterly POINTLESS in the age of email. I don't even check mine, and I've made that known.
Responding to an email in the title. It doesn't make sense. It's crazy town. Why?
How did you misspell my name? It's right there? Literally…there.
How did you misspell my name? It's right there? Literally…there.
We have two ladies, incredibly good at their jobs, who NONETHELESS ALWAYS TYPE THEIR EMAILS IN ALL CAPS AND CANNOT STOP NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES THEY ARE TRAINED AND HOW MANY TIMES IT'S EXPLAINED TO THEM THAT THEY ARE YELLING AT PEOPLE.
One is in constant contact with (corporate) customers, the other with suppliers, and I guess they're all just used to it by now.
One is in constant contact with (corporate) customers, the other with suppliers, and I guess they're all just used to it by now.
I'm in the wonderful position of going by my middle name but working for a company that uses [email protected] email formatting.
Say my email address is [email protected]. I'll send an email like
"Hi, my name is Allen Jenkins and blah blah blah.
Thanks,
-Allen"
There's a 50% chance I get a reply of "Hey Robert.. "
You are now on my shit list forever.
My work has a general inbox for customers, and sometimes we ask them to send files to the general inbox but put "ATTN: Staff" in the subject line.
One guy Erin just doesn't get the memo, and has people just write "Erin" in the subject line, without fail. This is a slight peeve because the "Attn" marker helps us filter out what needs to be forwarded to people
Worst yet is Erin always asks for the stupidest things to be emailed in, like a screenshot of the error message, when he has the error code. Erin also rarely follows up on time with his emails, causing more emails. He also gets clients to send it in multiple times if he doesn't see it within 1.25 seconds.
One guy Erin just doesn't get the memo, and has people just write "Erin" in the subject line, without fail. This is a slight peeve because the "Attn" marker helps us filter out what needs to be forwarded to people
Worst yet is Erin always asks for the stupidest things to be emailed in, like a screenshot of the error message, when he has the error code. Erin also rarely follows up on time with his emails, causing more emails. He also gets clients to send it in multiple times if he doesn't see it within 1.25 seconds.
Oh what kills me is when someone responds to a build email failure complaining about the notification when their commit is the cause.
Emails that say "I just messaged you on Teams." Yeah, I know, Teams has notifications just like Outlook.
When this happens I do not open the Teams message for a while. I know they don't know but I hate this practice so much.
When this happens I do not open the Teams message for a while. I know they don't know but I hate this practice so much.
But to the OP, email is only for long lasting discussions to a narrow list of people that you intend to archive longer. For company wide, forums. For teams and cross department collaborating, use Teams groups and chats.
Email is horrible for anything beyond a small recipient list. Ain't got time for organizing discussions when modern tools do that for you, like teams meetings chat history, group chat history, etc.
Email is horrible for anything beyond a small recipient list. Ain't got time for organizing discussions when modern tools do that for you, like teams meetings chat history, group chat history, etc.
Somebody emails me asking for something
I respond within the day with the requested info
Two weeks later, original sender replies to their original email with like 8 higher ups CC'd "Any updates on this?"
BITCH I GOT BACK TO YOU LIKE RIGHT AWAY. Drives me crazy bc they're accusing me of doing the exact thing they're doing - not paying attention to their inbox - and putting me in the position of having to be the "per my last email" guy
I respond within the day with the requested info
Two weeks later, original sender replies to their original email with like 8 higher ups CC'd "Any updates on this?"
BITCH I GOT BACK TO YOU LIKE RIGHT AWAY. Drives me crazy bc they're accusing me of doing the exact thing they're doing - not paying attention to their inbox - and putting me in the position of having to be the "per my last email" guy
CC'ing every man and their dog when they want to escalate something is probably the best one
protip: most managers (myself included) have CC filters set up on our inboxes so we filter all the useless escalations.
Any important escalations will get brough up elsewhere.
protip: most managers (myself included) have CC filters set up on our inboxes so we filter all the useless escalations.
Any important escalations will get brough up elsewhere.
Only peeve I've seen is when we email an outside contractor and all our thread history is destroyed because they're using some bizarre text-only email mode.
I'm not big on formalities. I'll do the tired and true "Hi/Hello [person name]" and end with an obligatory "Thanks" if I didn't already open with it. Anything more feels stuffy and excessive.
Even most signatures are redundant. I set mine to only appear when I compose the email, not in replies.
I'm not big on formalities. I'll do the tired and true "Hi/Hello [person name]" and end with an obligatory "Thanks" if I didn't already open with it. Anything more feels stuffy and excessive.
Even most signatures are redundant. I set mine to only appear when I compose the email, not in replies.
When someone messages you on Teams and also tags you in the message. Fuck it drives me insane. You're sending the message directly to me so I'm going to see it. It makes me want to respond to the message less, which means people would tag me more in direct messages.
People do this to me because I ignore all but mentions. I'm one of the 2 lead developers for the company's DevOps software build cluster, so Teams is extra obnoxious for me because every damn discussion has me joining some squads private channel. Then because so many fuckwits mention general/default for the group and ping ping ping flash flash flash the teams icon, I set the channel to ignore all but direct mentions.
It's unfortunate too because teams is so good at what it does.
I suspect the problem is that my company is doing it wrong and we should have a channel for build only dividied into CI, PRs, releases etc.
No I mean in a direct message on Teams, not in a team or channel discussion. In that regard it's fine if someone tags me, but I mean in a chat message that's coming just to me, I'll have people start the message by tagging me.
Any of that "kindest regards" or other similar closing bullshit. Don't need it.
Don't need a hello in the beginning, either. Your name is in your fucking signature, I know who the hell I'm talking to!
Don't need a hello in the beginning, either. Your name is in your fucking signature, I know who the hell I'm talking to!
Nothing bothers me more than someone who does just the bare minimum.
Just today I had to escalate something to my supervisor on an issue. My email explained the situation and everything we needed to push everything through... And I immediately get a response that the only reason why nothing has happened to this file/why they won't escalate it is because we're waiting on corporate approval.
But here's the thing, that approval email has been sitting on that account since Friday. Not only that, it's the email directly below mine in the email chain and my email was as long as where I am in this post so there's no way they missed it.
And then they send a separate email with me CC'd on it going to the escalations team (I can't do it myself, I would if I could) \where the subject line is just the ticket number with the body saying "please escalate". That's it. That's the email. No explanation of what's happening or why. I almost lost it.
Just today I had to escalate something to my supervisor on an issue. My email explained the situation and everything we needed to push everything through... And I immediately get a response that the only reason why nothing has happened to this file/why they won't escalate it is because we're waiting on corporate approval.
But here's the thing, that approval email has been sitting on that account since Friday. Not only that, it's the email directly below mine in the email chain and my email was as long as where I am in this post so there's no way they missed it.
And then they send a separate email with me CC'd on it going to the escalations team (I can't do it myself, I would if I could) \where the subject line is just the ticket number with the body saying "please escalate". That's it. That's the email. No explanation of what's happening or why. I almost lost it.
People who use Reply instead of Reply All when there are ~3-10 participants who are all reasonably interested in the response.
Everyone in my industry uses the "kind regards". I mostly use "thank you" or "much appreciated". I only use "kind regards" when I'm really not in the mood or I really don't want to thank them.
I work at Google and there is a constant battle between 'No Hello' and 'Yes Hello'. I subscribe to the 'No Hello' philosophy myself also, but it's more relevant for instant messages as it's extra annoying when someone sends you a message simply saying 'Hello!' and then waits for your response.
I don't mind it so much in emails, but yeah it ties in with brevity!
I use nothing.
I jump right into whatever it is my email is about. The title gives you a heads up on what the email is about... I say nothing after I'm done because my email signature says it all.
Exceptions being if I'm emailing someone I'm friends with, which will result in me tossing them a "hey", and I'll end with "thanks" if I'm legitimately saying thank you because someone did me a favor or helped me figure something out.
If it's not how I talk in real life, it's not going in my email.
People who are not careful about filtering the email chain when they add external people.
Unless we are very familiar with each other, if you initiate the conversation you start with a greeting and end with a closing. You can forego it with replies if they cannot be read as confrontational. If they can, be aware some people may read the tone of your email as abrupt, dismissive, or outright hostile even if it is not intended that way. Know your audience, basically.
Unless we are very familiar with each other, if you initiate the conversation you start with a greeting and end with a closing. You can forego it with replies if they cannot be read as confrontational. If they can, be aware some people may read the tone of your email as abrupt, dismissive, or outright hostile even if it is not intended that way. Know your audience, basically.
People who reply all to mailing list messages that go to the entire department. So annoying. No I do not want to see your "welcome!" reply to the announcement of a new hire. 🤬
The passive aggressive cc happens to me a lot too since I work in customer support. Funnily enough I was just venting about it to my boss and I saw this thread.
The passive aggressive cc happens to me a lot too since I work in customer support. Funnily enough I was just venting about it to my boss and I saw this thread.
Some of the posts in this thread contain behavior that I think is perfectly acceptable depending on the situation:
I can't speak for your workplace, but for mine there's an email signature template we're encouraged to follow that includes our names, our title, our phone number, our email, and our place of work. 🤷🏿‍♂️
I won't CC the person's boss, but sometimes I'll CC my own boss if I've sent someone multiple emails about something important and they haven't even given a courtesy, "Hey, I see this email. Give me some time to work on it." CCing a higher up often gets people who are bad at responding to respond, and it's something I never do for those that actually respond semi-regularly.
I'll usually send a couple of emails over the course of several days. If a week later you still haven't replied to a specific question/request and I it's not due to you being out of office? Yeah, I'm CCing someone else on that third request.
Whether it's polite or not, it's still a reminder. And it's probably a reminder that's being sent out because 80% of the people who got the original email didn't read it, and 50% of those people will go on to miss something that they'll ask about later.
I'll do this when someone asks a question that I fucking answered in my previous email.
Totally appropriate when having a group discussion. I have a coworker who will often reply only to me even when we're having a group discussion with people that need to know his answer, too. This requires me to then re-include everyone back in the thread.
I can't speak for your workplace, but for mine there's an email signature template we're encouraged to follow that includes our names, our title, our phone number, our email, and our place of work. 🤷🏿‍♂️
I won't CC the person's boss, but sometimes I'll CC my own boss if I've sent someone multiple emails about something important and they haven't even given a courtesy, "Hey, I see this email. Give me some time to work on it." CCing a higher up often gets people who are bad at responding to respond, and it's something I never do for those that actually respond semi-regularly.
I'll usually send a couple of emails over the course of several days. If a week later you still haven't replied to a specific question/request and I it's not due to you being out of office? Yeah, I'm CCing someone else on that third request.
Whether it's polite or not, it's still a reminder. And it's probably a reminder that's being sent out because 80% of the people who got the original email didn't read it, and 50% of those people will go on to miss something that they'll ask about later.
I'll do this when someone asks a question that I fucking answered in my previous email.
Totally appropriate when having a group discussion. I have a coworker who will often reply only to me even when we're having a group discussion with people that need to know his answer, too. This requires me to then re-include everyone back in the thread.
OP
OP
I love how many people in this thread are venting about their annoyances at work! I think it's good to get that out. Sometimes you might not realize how much you've been holding in!
I'm not very confrontational about subjects that I haven't been asked about directly, especially in professional situations, so no, I never bring it up.
Unless the issue makes doing my job exceedingly difficult or impossible, I'm not likely to bring it up because I don't want the issue to negatively impact the business in any way.
I'm not very confrontational about subjects that I haven't been asked about directly, especially in professional situations, so no, I never bring it up.
Unless the issue makes doing my job exceedingly difficult or impossible, I'm not likely to bring it up because I don't want the issue to negatively impact the business in any way.
See I think it depends on context. I work in family violence so I'm often emailing police, support workers, psychologist, psychiatrist, counsellors, corrections officers. It's often people I have never met or people I only have working relationships with. It's expected as a courtesy.
I would find it quite odd if someone emailed me without a greeting.
I get that, but I think that most people tend to do the same. Without receiving negative feedback on the behavior, what conclusion do the offenders have but to assume it's fine? It becomes tacitly acceptable when no one refuses to accept it.
OP
OP
I think the best solution is for companies to implement systems whereby anonymous suggestions and/or complaints can be made. If said complaints are in reference to a specific person and a specific action, evidence of said action should be included with said complaints. Many companies already provide such a system, but many do not, and of the ones that do, said complaints are often not taken very seriously, unfortunately.
I agree, but ultimately the effect is the same. If no one finds a behavior unacceptable, it becomes acceptable.
OP
OP
Of course, which then leads to threads like this one where everyone can vent their frustrations 🤣🤣🤣
The best is when they cc my manager and sometimes THEIR manager when they ask for the "update," basically "telling on me" for "not doing my job."
Since I don't delete any emails aside from obvious junk, I then go back in my "Sent" folder, find the email where I originally responded, attach that one in my response, and say "Sure, please see the attached email from x date."
Yes, I am doing my job; you're the one who sucks at email.
I am talking about when it is a company wide email that has 100's of people on the email list. Not just a small group discussion.
Fuuuuuuck, we have certain customers who when they need to contact us via email will only email a single person in our org that they're dealt with in the past. We always reply back and add the necessary group distros to the chain and even politely explain to the customer to use the distros so that the whole group receives the email, that way if a single person is out of the office the request doesn't get lost. Does it work? Nope, the customer will reply back to the individual sender thanking them for the info and continue to leave the distro off the email chain.
If 4 hours have passed when they make that call then you screwed up.
Noone should be depending on a response 2 hours before their shift ends because of a failure to respond timely.
Green doesn't necessarily mean that I'm not in the middle of something. My status might be green for 5 hours a day sometimes; doesn't mean I'm sitting there twiddling my thumbs. I don't always mark myself as "Busy" when I'm working on a concentration-intensive task.
And why bother calling if the status is "Away"? Just send an IM saying something like "Please reach out when you get a chance, regarding (insert subject here)."
Emails written entirely within the subject line.
Emails that could have been an IM.
Multiple threads related to a single request. This one drives me nuts because I have to keep track of 3-5 different threads to make sure that I've done the work correctly.
Emails that could have been an IM.
Multiple threads related to a single request. This one drives me nuts because I have to keep track of 3-5 different threads to make sure that I've done the work correctly.
this has to be an Indian thing right? i only ever see it from Indian contractors
I wish we could train users to file Jira bugs. Like, spraying them with water or hitting them on the nose with rolled up papers when they don't. :D
This is definitely an older generation thing. My dad and several of the older people I work with all do it, typically when you've sorted something for them or answered a question you get "thanks..."
Like, have you got more to say? Spit it out then!
Most of the ones I see look like corporate-wide signatures, so they unfortunately can't be changed. I've never touched mine ever and it's simple text (with name, phone, company name, address), but some of my vendors (and everyone I correspond with from their company) have bigass page-long signatures with multiple images and a ton of unused white space. I don't know why their marketing team thinks that's OK, but it seems to be an enterprise thing that everyone uses.