{"id":299,"date":"2022-01-17T20:13:13","date_gmt":"2022-01-17T20:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.julianreed.net\/?p=299"},"modified":"2025-05-27T12:08:24","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T12:08:24","slug":"how-to-waste-a-colleagues-time-with-email","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.julianreed.net\/?p=299","title":{"rendered":"How to waste a colleague’s time with email"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Email is still a useful way to communicate, but it’s also one of the easiest ways to be take out a small chunk of someone’s day.  Most people, including me, have at one point or another fallen into one of the traps that waste others’ time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some examples are listed below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear Julia, Dear Reed, Dear Julius etc.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m Julian and the clues are in my email address julian<\/strong>.reed@[my_employers_name].com as well as in my signature at the bottom of the email you are responding to<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FPA CARP BRD, please respond by EOD.  TYVM<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sorry that I come across as someone who needs their mind sharpening.  But thank you for spending part of your working day thinking up how to incorporate a little cryptic puzzle into your message for me\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

! Urgent flags for a non-urgent message<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your lack of preparation is not my emergency.  Using the urgent flag does not mean that you jump the queue!  You\u2019re going to the back of the queue!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LOTS OF TEXT IN CAPS!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t shout at me, I\u2019m sensitive!  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or are you worried that I will not understand the most important aspects of the email because I was off that day in school when they taught how to read the alphabet in lower case?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loosely pepper apostrophes around with wild abandon<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Example: <\/strong>These feature\u2019s are all aligned with the MVP.\u00a0\u00a0As for the main feature, it\u2019s delivery date is next week.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A useful refresher on apostrophe rules can be found on this page<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, of course, it’s not just email where people have fun flinging apostrophes around…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An email sent to 55 people and only four people need to actively engage<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

51 people don\u2019t need to watch the email \u2018tennis match\u2019 between those actively engaging.  In my opinion, real tennis is a good spectator sport –   but none of the email spectators are on the edge of their seats, glued to Outlook, awaiting the email equivalent of a winning drop shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John replies to all 55 people in the thread when saying nothing more than \u201cthanks\u201d to Jane<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nothing changes for me, or the other 53 recipients, when we receive John\u2019s email indicating that he had sufficient gratitude to type 6 characters.  Saying \u201cthanks\u201d is great John, but do we all really need to know that you are polite?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Email is still a useful way to communicate, but it’s also one of the easiest ways to be take out a small chunk of someone’s day.  Most people, including me, have at one point or another fallen into one of the traps that waste others’ time. Some examples are listed below: Dear Julia, Dear Reed, Dear 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