Think before you hit "send"

This may be of some use.

This may be of some use



Communicating by email has wonderful advantages not least it is almost immediate, can be sent as both an internal document to colleagues and can be sent to a distribution list across the world at the push of a button.



Sending an email is easy - perhaps too easy; do we put enough thought into how we communicate and the implications of what we say in an email which perhaps we would not say in a formal letter?



Do we also commit to email knee jerk reactions and a tone that we later regret? Do we remember that what we say to one person in an email can be forwarded to 10/100/1000 others?



Many of our organisations will have email protocols but it is really easy to get lazy and the boundaries can get blurred.

There are some simple things we can do to prevent awkward situations or worse.



All work related communications require a degree of formality. It doesn't have to be as formal as Dear John

We can use Hello Jane followed by the message and finish with kind regards or regards. It is helpful to ensure that we have a signature with our contact details



For very formal communications it is always better to use a formal letter template as an attachment and with your electronic signature and the statement 'Sent Electronically' if you are following up with a hard copy by post say this.



For sensitive/confidential documents do not use the auto fill i.e. from a list that pops up as it is really easy to get the wrong person - better to use your address book function or type the receipent's address in manually than sending something that may be comercially or personally sensitive to the wrong person. Also remember when using distribution lists that these are group lists and do not singe out a person for your attention by telling everyone...



If you are responding or reacting to an issue/incident that you are concerned/annoyed about it is better to type up what you want to send in a word document, save it, take a break or do something else and then read it again - is the tone right or too strong/too emotional/too angry? once you hit the send button it is too late to retreive what in hindsight you would not have sent.



It is also important to archive emails that you may need later - for example an instruction you have given or a comment on a particular project. Your organisation may for example delete emails on your system after a certain length of time - if it's important then you need to look at how best to archive it. Emails might come back to haunt you but they can also provide proof of an action, you took, an instruction you gave etc.