Sure, if you want to be unpopular at the office you can leave your limburger cheese sandwich in the fridge for a month, refuse to speak in any tone but “high pitched scream,” or play the radio at your desk all day. But why go above and beyond when there are so many quick, simple ways to make your coworkers hate you? The best and fastest way is, of course, via email. ABC News polled employees about what their most-loathed email habits were, and the results should not in any way surprise you. They include typing in all caps, flagging every single email as urgent, forwarding around chain letters or pictures of kittens, and people who have not learned the difference between “reply” and “reply all.”
What’s the most annoying way your coworkers have used email to annoy you? In my case, it’s when someone forwards the most recent email in an extended conversation without remembering to delete the previous emails. Invariably in one of the previous emails you said something mean about the person the thing just gor forwarded to.
Does it seem like no matter how much you’re on top of things you still have 4,000 unread emails in your Outlook? Darren over at Problogger has some great suggestions for how to clear out your inbox and reduce the number of emails you get every day. (We cannot teach your boss how to send one long email instead of fifteen that are each one sentence long, unfortunately.)
- Unsubscribe, unsubscribe, unsubscribe. If you get newsletters, some of them may be ones you didn’t even sign up for. Scroll down to the bottom of the email and find the link for unsubscribing. For emails you actually do want but don’t have the time to read, find out if there’s a way to reduce your subscription to 3 days a week or something.
- Consolidate multiple email addresses into one. Darren used Gmail. You probably can’t do that with work email, but you may be able to consolidate multiple variations of your work email (as in, do you get email at CB@company.com as well as ChrisB@company.com? Find out how to merge.)
- Create more folders and labels within your email. This way, you can store emails you might need for reference later without having them take up space in your inbox and potentially get lost.
- If you have Outlook, there’s a function that allows you to have email from certain people appear in different colors so that you can spot it immediately. Make your boss blue, your mom yellow, and that bitch in HR purple.
- Make friends with your “Archive” feature.
- If an email deals with a specific task, and you do the task, erase the email ASAP.
For these tips and more, click here.
ABC.com has some super cute e-Valentines with characters from their shows Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, and Ugly Betty on them. They’re adorable and don’t need stamps. Check out a great workplace-themed one STA reader Sherry sent us here.
Who knew that Malta had disgruntled assistants too? Here’s a great story about one of those assistants:
An embarrassed Nationalist MEP David Casa has asked his assistant to clean denigrating comments made about the Labour Party which likened the party to a condom.The comments made by André Carbonaro, Casa’s assistant, have shamed the Nationalist Party so much so that its MEP felt he had to issue a rude press statement slamming Labour Party leader Alfred Sant for no reason.
In his personal profile Mr Carbonaro says that the “Malta Labour Party announced that it is going to change its emblem from a torch to a condom.” He says that condoms, like Labour, “destroy the next generation, protect a bunch of pricks and give you a sense of security while you are actually being f*****.”
Amazingly, the assistant has not been fired…yet.
While we prefer the term emaelstrom, business reporters have been talking about the concept of “information overload.” The biggest culprit of this email overload? People who hit “reply all.” That’s right…people who think everyone cares about their stupid work issues are actually undermining the economy. Tech firm Basex Inc. has pinpointed information overload as the biggest problem facing workers today. They argue that every time someone sends you a useless email, you get distracted and pull yourself away from something relevant in order to read whatever’s in your inbox.
So this year, teach your boss to hit the “reply” button. Everyone will be happier you did.
Urban Dictionary defines emaelstrom as “A long and complicated email trail with dozens of CC’s discussing a situation almost none of the recipients cares about.”
While that’s an excellent starting place, we feel the definition could be clarified further. Invariably, this emaelstrom is started by That Guy, the person in the office who thinks every other employee works for him instead of with him. He’s the guy who writes his emails in bold and/or all caps because he doesn’t know any better. He hasn’t bothered to learn what anyone’s job description is. Therefore, when there’s a problem with internal email, he feels the need to email his assistant about it and CC sales, marketing, and creative about the problem instead of going directly to IT, who could actually fix the internal email. And then after That Guy sends out the email, a bunch of idiot VIPs at the company, who have not yet mastered the fine art of hitting “reply” instead of “reply all,” feel the burning need to weigh in on the issue.
Emaelstrom is a great term. But maybe we need a term for the That Guy who starts the emaelstrom in the first place. Ideas anyone?
This is one of the ickiest, saddest stats we’ve heard lately: according to LiveScience.com, 64 percent of Americans report they spend more time with their computer than with their significant other. While it’s understandable that you might spend 8 hours a day at work on your computer, thus upping your numbers, but… it’s depressing. It’s extra depressing if they count hand-held/portable devices like BlackBerries and PalmPilots. Sign of Stockholm Syndrome: if you are with your significant other, PARTICULARLY if you’re in the middle of getting some action, and you check your email, it is time to get a new job. Unless you’re avoiding your significant other, in which case they probably shouldn’t be your other any more.
For more info from the study, click here.
Forget Casual Friday. The new way one company is signifying the end of the work week is by having Email-Free Friday. Their idea is to force employees to have actual face-to-face in person interactions at least once a week. Novel idea, huh?
As we live in a world where the workplace is increasingly wired, and we’re all coping with the effects of technostress, tired eyes, and carpal tunnel, why is it still so gauche to actually speak to each other?
Considering that no one wants to get any work done on Friday anyway, email-free Friday is a great way to get people up and moving and not just staring at their computers like zombies. And we’re totally in favor of that.
