Written by Jenny Catton
Once upon a time, work place communication involved picking up the phone or speaking to customers and colleagues face-to-face. These days, we’re much more likely to dash out a quick email. And the benefits of email are easy to see. It’s fast, you can send a message any time to anywhere in the world, and it provides a useful record of what was said. But one major drawback of email is that without body language, or tone of voice to support your words, what you say in an email can be easily misinterpreted. For example, something you mean to be a minor grumble could be interpreted as a serious rant, or a friendly joke could be misconstrued as being rude. So before you next hit the ‘send’ button, it’s worth taking a minute to check that what you’ve written will be understood.
Here are some things to think about before you send an email:
- Is it too informal? When emailing friends, it’s common to use abbreviations, slang terms and emoticons such as smiley faces, but in the business world, it’s generally best to keep things more formal.
- Be careful of jokes. Without body language or tone of voice,jokes can easily be misinterpreted.
- Is email the best form of communication? Think about the message you are sending – if it’s very important or sensitive, perhaps a telephone conversation or meeting would be better.
- Don’t write anything in an email that you wouldn’t be happy to say out loud. You never know who your email might be forwarded to (accidentally or intentionally).
For more information about workplace communication, visit: www.workcommunication.co.uk
