Write It Well

When Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang got to work writing an e-mail about layoffs, he made some serious blunders. Which was worse — the fact that he sounded patronizing and euphemistic, or that he only used his SHIFT key twice, to make the exclamation point in “yahoo!”?

From his e-mail: “having layoffs is very difficult, particularly in light of all we’ve experienced this year.  but we don’t take these decisions lightly.” Whether he intended it or not, lowercase letters always look a little bit lazy. Sometimes that lowercase laziness looks sleek, hip, and  perfect for a techie marketing campaign — but nobody wants to be laid off by a sleek, hip, lazy boss. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt. Probably Mr. Yang thought his lowercase e-mail looked approachable. Too bad he further obscured his message with roundabout business talk:

“we understand that hearing this news now creates uncertainty, but we are moving ahead in a way that balances speed with a clear focus on accomplishing what is necessary to set the organization up for long term success,” he wrote. I’m quite sure he knows that “a clear focus on accomplishing what is necessary to set the organization up for long term success” means deciding which employees to lay off. But he didn’t write that. He tried to hide the bad news.

The sad truth is that bad news takes guts to deliver. Coincidentally enough, Yahoo!’s own written guidelines for layoffs are right on the mark:

• Get right to the point.
• Don’t own the employee’s feelings.
• Be clear, concise, and respectful.

Nobody likes to write difficult e-mails. Effective communication skills help us write e-mail that gets the job done and looks professional. Check out Write It Well’s guide to e-mail for more tips on effective writing.

I was browsing through a PostSecret collection today when I read a postcard from someone who confessed waiting several days to respond to friends’ e-mails.  Just to seem busier. Most of us are probably guilty of postponing a response for similar reasons, but does e-mail delay actually make us look busier or more glamorous? 

I thought back to delayed e-mails I’d received — delayed e-mails from writers who certainly weren’t overwhelmingly busy. Had they just taken the time to compose a thoughtful reply? Were they apathetic? Bored? I compared their e-mails to prompt replies. The prompt replies usually came from professionals, and were followed by prompt action on my part. The delayed responses simply got buried in my inbox.

If you want to project a professional image, reply as soon as you are able. Certainly, reply thoughtfully and carefully. But I find that it’s much harder to respond if I’ve let an e-mail sit for a few days.

For more guidance on how to write effective e-mail, check out E-Mail: A Write It Well Guide.

Why do we give workshops on “E-Mail Efficiency” instead of “E-Mail Etiquette” like other people do? The short answer: our workshops cover more material. To use e-mail most effectively, of course you need proper e-mail etiquette. You won’t get much done with offensive, boring, or badly-timed messages! But you also need to know how to keep a tidy inbox, for example, and how to write persuasive e-mail messages — not to mention the nitty-gritty details of professional grammar and clean prose.

Write It Well works with your company to tailor an interactive e-mail workshop to your specific needs and strengths. We train your company to write e-mail that gets your work done in less time. That’s efficiency!

If Google had its way, you would never delete e-mail, let alone file it. Google got rid of the old filing cabinet analogy for e-mail when they introduced GMail, which lets you archive everything and easily search for it later. No folders, no files, no trash.

What about confidential e-mail? The “delete immediately” e-mail with jokes about the boss’s son and inside trading tips? Sorry. Confidential e-mail doesn’t exist, and never has. GMail just makes it a bit more clear that every careless e-mail is carved in electronic stone. Even deleted e-mail. In 2006, a judge requested deleted e-mail held on Google’s servers — and got it. If you want to talk about something confidential or offensive, don’t write an e-mail.

“CC” originally meant “carbon copy,” but what does it mean now that the Internet has replaced carbon paper? Carbon copies — for those of us who remember — were thin, poor-quality reproductions of an original document. You sent a carbon copy to interested people who didn’t need to reply, unlike the intended recipient, who got the original. Electronically, CC works like this: everyone can see all the addresses in the CC field, and if any recipient hits “reply to all,” their message goes to all the original recipients AND everyone in the CC field.

When you are CC’d in an e-mail, go ahead and file the e-mail if you like. The author made no secret that you were looking at the e-mail, and felt that you would find its message relevant. If you’d like to respond, however, think carefully before choosing “reply to all”. Send your message only to people who really need to have your response.

For more tips on using e-mail in the workplace, check out E-Mail: A Write It Well Guide.

“I received your report. We need to talk,” read the e-mail.

“Oh no!” I thought, “how bad was my report?”

Not bad at all. In fact, the report was great and my manager just wanted to tell me so in person. Unfortunately, his e-mail was too tersely worded. People often express anger by being curt and blunt. E-mail messages also tend to be curt and blunt, because the medium is so casual. Remember that your reader doesn’t hear your friendly tone of voice, or know that you were rushing out the door to a meeting. Try to find the sweet spot — a businesslike tempo between gushing and surly.

To really get your idea across, reach for the phone AND your computer. The phone adds urgency and personality to your e-mail, while an e-mail can quickly convey and store detailed or complicated information. Your goal is to keep your correspondents from having to jot down notes on the phone, while letting them know that your message is important enough for a phone call.

The order — phone first or later — depends on your message. It may be most effective to send an e-mail with all the information, adding, “I’ll call you on Thursday to hear your opinion.” Or, you can use your phone call to cover the basics, adding, “I’ll e-mail you with the details of our conversation.”

Hitting “send” is easier than finding a stamp and sealing an envelope, and far easier than confronting a person face-to-face. If you’re prone to bursts of anger, put a safety on your send button: compose your e-mail in a word processor. The extra cut-and-paste steps will help you avoid sending e-mail that could damage relationships or even land you in legal trouble. Check out Chapter 5: Cautionary Tales in E-Mail: A Write It Well Guide.

22% of workers who use e-mail say that they are required to check their business e-mail even when they aren’t at work, according to a study by the PEW Internet and American Life Project published last week. The numbers are even higher for the BlackBerry-and-iPhone set: 48% of workers with mobile e-mail say they have to check their e-mail at home.

With all this e-mail interrupting our weekends, it’s even more important that our messages are relevant, clear, and concise. Write It Well offers workshops and do-it-yourself workshop facilitator kits that can help your business reduce e-mail clutter — and leave your down-time as free as possible.

• Keep messages short. When sending e-mail that might be read on a hand-held device, keep messages short and put the key information at the top.
• Describe attachments. When sending e-mail to people on the move, always describe attachments (briefly) because they might not be able to see them right away.
• Reduce the need for lengthy responses. Try to structure messages so recipients either do not need to respond or can answer in few words.