It's only words
I came across this interesting article from various tweets and Facebook posts: Stop yourself from making egregious e-mail errors. The writers highlighted three points that I agree with and really like:
- Be careful of recklessly BCC'ing and forwarding e-mails
- Be courteous; it doesn't take much effort to type "thanks"
- Have some tact and stop yourself from playing fascist dictator when replying
A tool that the article recommends is http://tonecheck.com/. This is to flag harsh phrases, which could help people while writing emails. I'd just like to add that that with so many social media tools available today and even texting on our mobile phones, people are taking basic communication for granted. Hey, if you can be polite and all for work, why don't you apply it on a personal level? Perhaps you think that your friends should understand you, because you are a caveman at heart. And so, you repay them by treating them like shit? At this rate, you'll be friendless.
Two of my pet peeves are (1) to receive curt messages. For example, you haven't seen or heard from a friend for a long time and you text them a 'how are you?' message. The response 'I'm fine' really pisses me off. Yea, so I know that you can write a novel via SMS but is texting 'I'm doing ok and thanks for asking' such a chore? Messages like that make me feel that I should not have bothered in the first place.
(2) Badly written SMS-es. Now this one is probably the product of our parents being impatient people. Mine is and trust me, the SMS-es I receive can confound the most intelligent person. The example: 'Bring down the freezer stuff, I am on the way'. You think, what and call them. During the call, you get instructions to bring down some frozen food so that it can be cooked later in the day and learn that your mother is on her way to visit an aunt. And by the way, you should have lunch first cos she won't be back in time. Hoookkkaayy....
I have to admit that sometimes I too respond to SMS-es or emails curtly. This is mainly because of the tone that the initial communication was sent in. We know that everyone is pressed for time and that time is money but to preserve our relationships, we sometimes have to take the time to personalize our messages. You don't have to send out gushy messages just a polite return message will do.
It's only words but putting a smile on the face of the recipient works far better than having them slag you off.
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