Email is here to stay. It is very quickly becoming the primary communication tool in business. And if you want to hold back your career with your email practices, here are a few hints that can help you:
1. Waste peoples’ time. The more you annoy people by creating extra work through a myriad of bonehead maneuvers like sending unnecessary emails, forgetting attachments, and inserting HUGE graphics, the less they will think of your business communications skills.
2. Send poorly written emails. Use improper grammar, spelling and punctuation. Use run on sentences.
3. Make sure you don’t use spell check.
4. Bury the point of your communication in the middle of the message. By making it very hard for people to know what it is you are trying to convey, you will be sure to make a name for yourself in business circles.
5. Forward lengthy chain emails, saying “see below.” A great way to call attention to your lack of respect for the receiver is to forward an email that has at least 10 previously forwarded emails contained in it. This forces the recipient to have to read through all 10 to try to figure out what is important.
6. Copy as many people as you can. This one is more subtle. By adding many extra recipients, you might think you’re communicating, but what you’re really doing is adding more work to peoples’ already full plates. They may not catch on to this one right away, but over time, you won’t be able to hide.
7. Gossip via email. Even though you think that your friend won’t rat you out over the gossip you sent – hey, it is a permanent record, and that “friend” could be as catty as you!
8. Put several names in the “To:” line
9. Write long and rambling emails.
10. Send emails between 1am and 5am.
