EMAIL PET PEEVES (First 15)
Readers Respond: What Email Etiquette Hint Do You Wish Others Would Follow?
Responses: 150
By Heinz Tschabitscher , About.com Guide
Tons of addresses in the To: line; no greeting, or words aplenty until the sender gets to the point; forwarded messages that consist of nothing but, well, whatever that is...
What irks you most about email etiquette not followed, or followed too much perhaps?
What email etiquette hint do you most wish others would follow? Share Your Pet Peeve
Bcc
I don't bother to read emails with too many "To:" and Cc:" recipients. This list should include instructions to use "Bcc:" when emailing more than five people, except when it's important for each recipient to know who was sen the message, in which case sometimes making a group of recipients named "Donut Morons" or something will help because only the group name will be in the "To:" or "Cc:" field instead of dozens of recipients. It's occurred to me before that it's important for everyone to have everyone else's email address in an organization without a global address book, but this can be done with a single email for that purpose only every time the list ("Donut Morons") is updated.
—GuestBobtholomew
Too many Questions Marks
When someone ends a question with more than one question mark. Rude!
—GuestDoris Foley
An entire message in the subject line!
Are you kidding me? This is the WORST thing anyone could do! Writing everything in the bloody subject line, leaving the body of the email blank! This not just irks and irritates me, but angers me beyond my limit! Those who don't know how to email should bloody keep their thick heads out of it and stick to pen and paper. Shame on you!
—GuestSam Wise
Responding appropriately
Some of us are the recipients of e-mails from someone with "Reply All-itis". Too, too much information and information being sent is neither helpful nor pertinent to all of us. How do we make it stop?!
—GuestDiane
Receipt Request
My biggest peeve is when certain individuals have a receipt request on every email sent. They feel as if you are infringing on their constitutional rights if you ask them to use it on a needed basis and not as a default.
—GuestGerry - Federal Employee
Salutation on Emails
When you are sending email to co-workers you see every day, I feel a salutation is NOT needed. Everyone I work with writes "Greetings Pat" or "Dear Pat". That is not necessary when forwarding or sending new email to people you know. It's too formal!
—maggie1957
Stationery In The Workplace
Do not use stationery in the workplace. This takes up additional space on the email, is hard to read through, and the cute little foot prints, flowers, designs… have no place in the workplace. Save it for your personal email with friends and family.
—GuestGuest Z08
Political, religious and/or sexual email
People (may even be a spouse) sending me political, religious and/or sexual emails, i.e. forwards, photos, etc. that are not appropriate, and especially if I have written and requested that they stop.
—Guestcager38
What can I do?
A coworker of mine uses email as instant messenger, replies to old emails with a new subject (but does not change the subject line) and often injects comments about her personal life to work emails.
—GuestLostInFL
Greetings and/or sign-offs
Isn't the address and return in the heading enough to know who the recipient and sender are? Why duplicate things?
—rquacke
BCC Si!
And yet another vote for using BCC when you forward things. I don't know everyone in your address book, they don't know me, and I don't necessarily want them to have my email address. Not to mention that if anyone receiving that CC'd email picks up a virus, you've just compromised every single email address on that CC.
—GuestAmy
Privacy!
Don't give out other people's personal email addresses without asking. Ever.
—GuestAmy
Hoax and Jokes
I hate emails about the crazy man trying to harm you and stupid jokes.
—GuestCAR
Emails that disturb and annoy
1) Rude or poor language—even in official mails in corporate—esp many now using SMS type text and often have lost all courtesy. 2) Junk Fwds—sent esp fear to psyche on health matters and fake data. Overall I find about 20% are junk mails inc gross humor fwds
—GuestCaptTRajkumar
Did you pass English?
[One of my pet peeves is] continuous rambling without punctuation. Please read your emails before you send! I also send one question per email; most people don't respond to more than one at a time.
MY THOUGHTS
Recognize any?
