How to Know when Not to Use Email
Avoid emailing when you are breaking bad news., Avoid emailing to cancel at the last minute., Avoid emailing when you are seeking to negotiate a price., Avoid emailing when something has to be done now., Avoid long emails and complexity., Avoid...
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Avoid emailing when you are breaking bad news.
This is bad form and it lacks sincerity and emotion.
Breaking up with someone over email is unfair, and you should never inform a close family member of a death via email.
The exception concerning death is to inform people not closely related to a person in a more general manner well after the family members have all been informed. -
Step 2: Avoid emailing to cancel at the last minute.
It is not sensible to assume that somebody is going to be reading their email as you decide five minutes before a rendezvous that you can't be bothered going.
Use the telephone (don't text!) and make sure you tell the person directly.
People are also wise to the covering-your-backside routine of using email to say "Oh, you didn't know? I sent you an email".
They can read the time and date after all... , While it's OK to send a PDF invoice for payment via email, it's not OK to negotiate price via email.
Misunderstandings occur all too easily.
Call them up, arrange a meeting time for a face-to-face discussion and proceed from there. , Again, as with canceling a meeting, how do you know that the person has even read it? The best way to deal with urgency is to meet face-to-face, to hammer in the urgent aspects, and to be assured that all parties concerned know its urgent. , When the email is about a lengthy, difficult and complicated matter, email can make a mess of it.
Again, have those face-to-face meetings, confirm understandings as the project proceeds by using phone conversations and only use email to flip documents between each other. , How cold and unfeeling can you get?! -
Step 3: Avoid emailing when you are seeking to negotiate a price.
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Step 4: Avoid emailing when something has to be done now.
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Step 5: Avoid long emails and complexity.
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Step 6: Avoid using email to propose.
Detailed Guide
This is bad form and it lacks sincerity and emotion.
Breaking up with someone over email is unfair, and you should never inform a close family member of a death via email.
The exception concerning death is to inform people not closely related to a person in a more general manner well after the family members have all been informed.
It is not sensible to assume that somebody is going to be reading their email as you decide five minutes before a rendezvous that you can't be bothered going.
Use the telephone (don't text!) and make sure you tell the person directly.
People are also wise to the covering-your-backside routine of using email to say "Oh, you didn't know? I sent you an email".
They can read the time and date after all... , While it's OK to send a PDF invoice for payment via email, it's not OK to negotiate price via email.
Misunderstandings occur all too easily.
Call them up, arrange a meeting time for a face-to-face discussion and proceed from there. , Again, as with canceling a meeting, how do you know that the person has even read it? The best way to deal with urgency is to meet face-to-face, to hammer in the urgent aspects, and to be assured that all parties concerned know its urgent. , When the email is about a lengthy, difficult and complicated matter, email can make a mess of it.
Again, have those face-to-face meetings, confirm understandings as the project proceeds by using phone conversations and only use email to flip documents between each other. , How cold and unfeeling can you get?!
About the Author
Edward Knight
Dedicated to helping readers learn new skills in crafts and beyond.
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