Reading Response Week 2 - email
Just a few weeks ago at my internship, a friend that works at the bank told me a funny story about accidentally sending an email. Sometimes during the week my friend and his coworkers joke around sending emails mocking everybody at work to make the day go faster. It kind of has turned into a routine, everybody at work always gets a laugh. My friend, called Luis, has this other friend called Lalo, which is also part of the funny emails. It turns out that Luis sent out a message to Lalo (with everybody else included in the email) just saying: Lalo is a homosexual. It had no subject, no greeting, It turns out that he sent the email without checking the right recipient, and it also turns out that the CEO of the company is also called Lalo. He accidentally sent that message to the CEO of the bank and realized it just after pressing send. He told me he turned pale and could not believe what just happened. Luckily, the CEO was at a meeting and he got to reach his secretary and told her about the email, so she just erased it and nothing got to happen. When I read the scandal of the Cerner Corporation, it kind of reminded me of my friend's story even though they are totally different events with totally different outcomes. My friend's email could have cost him his job or a really awkward situation, unlike the CEO of the Cerner Corporation which caused the company valuation to drop dramatically.
Its amazing how fast information is exchanged today, it has gotten to a point where a simple click (after writing a text) can cause a company to lose its value, a job, among many other things. I was specially surprised when reading about "netiquette" in the Thomson Handbook. I had no idea that there are guides about norms and expectations about e-mail writing, which in my opinion, is something I would not considerate reading. I think that there is no right or wrong way about writing an email, it all just depends on the "tone" of the text. If the email is formal, you should write a greeting as well as a formal closure. I don't think you need to read a guide to know how to write an email, people who know how to communicate should know how to write (as well as talk) to superiors or people who you need to treat with respect. It is a totally different situation when talking to a friend, which is something that I agree with the TH. Now, there are some good tips in the text like the section about subject lines, since I used to write subjects like the ones labeled "ineffective", and after reading the TH, I agree that subject lines should be detailed like the given examples. In conclusion, I did get some useful tips off the reading (like the common virus subject lines) and I think that email sending is something important to learn about, since today all companies use emails daily. I could not imagine the time where communications were so slow, I think it would be so hard to achieve many things. For starters, it would be very complicated for a company to do business with the rest of the world.
Comments
I found your blog to be
I found your blog to be quite humorous and interesting. Thank god the CEO never read the email! I think we have gotten to a point where email is a way of life. Unfortunately, we are losing our manners in which we properly communicate with one another. For instance, people are abbreviating their words, not using spell check, or don't use proper grammar. Worst of all, we don't even have opportunity to feel the emotion of what is written or hear the intonation pattern of one's voice.
Wow
That's a great story. It's a good example of why people need to be careful sending joke emails (people aren't always as lucky as your friend.) However, even jokes that go to their intended recepient can cause trouble, because most companies archive and scan email for troublesome phrases (in fact, the Supreme Court ruled recently that companies must archive all sent email). In one case, a company in London was replacing a new secretary, and one employee emailed another to request "a busty blond." The email was archived and discovered, and the former secretary successfully sued the company for sexual harrassment and won 50,000 pounds. Fortunately, your story didn't have nearly such disastrous results.
Good Story
Before my internship, I never paid attention to how my etiquette was when writing emails. For the most part, they were going to friends and family members so I had no reason to double check my grammar or sentence structure. I have now realized the importance of having good “netiquette” really is and how it can affect you. Right before I send emails to some of my co-workers, I double check my spelling and grammar to make sure there are no errors. In today’s society, sending funny emails to people within a business setting can cost you your job which unfortunately has happened. Many employers have networks in which they can view your sent email whether it’s deleted or not. In a sense, emails can make you or break you depending on what you say.
Tone
Tone
I think it is very hard for most people to actually write in words what they actually intend of saying. When writing, you could write a simple frase and it could mean totally different things if the tone is different. This is especially hard for me. I have a lot of trouble expressing myelf through text, I feel that my personality gets "cut" since I feel limited when expressing myself. I just think that through an email one must maitain professionality, obviously depending on the purpose of it. I don't think that one can make sure that the right tone is passed trough the text. Since you are the one writing it, you hear "in your head" the tone you are actually getting out of the text. But when someone else reads it, the message could be perceived differently, and there is no guarantee that it would be the same way you intended.
reading response week 2
I agree that people don't take emailing a seriously as they should. The only thing emailing is going to replace in normal snail mail. Formal letters are going to be crossing the web faster than through the mail carriers.