Civility in the Workplace

Trim sentences to 15-18 words.

"Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it and, above all, accurately so they will be guided by its light."
--Joseph Pulitzer (in 34 words actually)

Tips for better writing
Focus on your audience.
Determine your purpose.
Connect with the reader.
Be brief, clear and accurate.
Make it easy to read.

What is the purpose of your email?
What do you want someone to
--know (information)
--feel (emotion)
--do (action)
after reading what you wrote?

Think: I am writing because I want ________________

Eliminate jargon, outdated phrases and clichés
Many of these are left-over from days of memos but creep into email messages:
If I can be of further assistance
Please don’t hesitate to call
Enclosed please find
Per your request
With regard to
Thank you in advance

Take the time to write brief and clear emails so you don’t have to explain further in follow-up emails. It will reduce your stress and that makes you more civil…with your customers, coworkers and supervisor.

(This was part of my presentation promoting civility in the workplace at the Iowa State University Extension Office Assistants Development Conference.)

Posted by Lynette Spicer at 06:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Civility, responsibility and professionalism in emails
1. I resolve to send fewer emails. I will opt to talk to people rather than automatically revert to an email. Calling someone or visiting in person enhances communication…and often saves time.
2. I will be concise, editing out the unnecessary. My emails will be examples of good communication.
3. I will not send nor answer unnecessary emails. For example, an email refers to an earlier email which I didn’t read. I’ll find it rather than bother the sender for information I have. I also will not answer such emails. I may call or go visit the person but I’m not going to answer via email to perpetuate this habit.
4. I will acknowledge receipt of information when I don’t have time or the information to answer immediately.
5. I will not contribute to those email conversations that are unnecessary one or two liners.
6. I will note who received the email so I don’t forward an email on to someone who already received it.
7. I will note when I’m on the copy line rather than the ‘to’ line. That typically means it’s for my information and I’m not expected to respond.
8. I will gauge the tone of my emails by reading them from the receiver’s perspective before I send.
9. I will send work emails on my work account; personal emails on my personal accounts.

After I wrote this, I wondered what others resolved about email messages. This one is good---take a look:
An Associate Professor of Religion at Indiana Wesleyan University posted
Ten New Year’s Resolutions we ought to make about Email

What email resolutions would you add?

Posted by Lynette Spicer at 09:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Sounds pretty sensational, doesn’t it? Public employee emails and text messages are in the news in open records laws and proposed laws nationwide.

Iowa
One of the proposed changes to Iowa’s open-government laws this year refers to information “stored in any medium” and defines the records as anything “owned by, created by, in the possession of, or under the control of, any unit, division, or part of state or local government or the officials or employees of such public bodies in the course of the performance of their respective duties.”

Kentucky
A circuit judge ruled “The fact that state employees are using state resources to exchange non-work-related messages during working hours is a matter of legitimate inquiry for the public.”

You do not own your work computer, cell phone or hand-held device
It’s becoming clearer that whatever you send from a public computer, that is the one on your desk if you’re a government employee, may be subject to open records laws. The same for your cell phone or hand-held device if it belongs to the government.

So be a good citizen, be civil, particularly if you’re a public employee. Two points:
• Don’t type something you don’t want to see in the newspaper. That’s a double negative. Think of it like this—assume anything you type can be used in an open-records case.
• Don’t send non-work related communication from equipment owned by your employer.

If you didn’t read these posts last summer, read them now, or reread them---
Think before you send. Send email you would like to receive.
Work email and personal email are quite different in two ways
It is difficult for me to select the most relevant posts about email because I think you need to consider many aspects. To find my eight posts on email, go to http://www.extension.iastate.edu/mt/civility/communication/email/
And if you want to borrow my copy of the book SEND which is the basis of some of these posts, just ask.

Posted by Lynette Spicer at 06:44 AM | Permalink

Your email address
What does it say about you? Do most in your organization use one convention and you use something else? A business email address should be professional. Even personal email addresses can appear capricious when you need to be respectful.

When I created a Gmail account, I was pleased that Google offered suggestions using my initials and given name and surname for my address. If you want to know how many people in the United States have your name, (according to this Web site) try How Many of Me? at http://howmanyofme.com/

What the copy (Cc) line means
I want you to know what’s going on, even though you probably don’t have to do anything. When you email people outside your organization, make it clear why you’ve copied someone, i.e. I’ve copied Flora who …..

Subject line—always use it and make it quality
Make it informative. ‘Marketing team meeting Nov. 2’ is better than ‘Meeting’. Good words to use: Info, Action, Request. Subject lines should be updated over the course of an email correspondence.
The entire message may be in the subject line. You may add EOM (end of message) after the brief message that’s totally in the subject line.

Avoid all of these—urgent, notify sender, follow-up flag
Your email should speak for itself.

Salutations
“Dear” is always acceptable and always correct.
When writing to a group, salutations such as “Dear Colleagues”, “Dear Coworkers” and “Dear Friends’ are acceptable.
When sending email to colleagues you frequently work with, a greeting is not needed because the message is understood to be part of an ongoing conversation. The same goes for a close friend.

Message
The book ‘The Hamster Revolution: How to Manage Your E-Mail Before it Manages You’ advocates a structure of ABC. A is the action summary, the next steps with time elements. B is background, bullet points of the information the recipient needs. C is close with a personal message or the future of the project.
Use acronyms, abbreviations and emoticons sparingly. Would the recipient understand them?

Valedictions
“Best,” “All best,” “Best regards,” “Best wishes,” “Regards,” “Sincerely,” “Cordially,” “Sincerely yours” and “Yours” are all traditional complimentary closings. “Sincerely” is the coldest of the group, appropriate when writing to someone you don’t know well. This is a part of the tone of your message so select a closing for appropriate formality or informality. “As ever” is a nice closing.

Quotes, adages, axioms and morals in email signatures
'A Friend Is Someone Who Senses How To Sign Off an Email', The Wall Street Journal Online,
http://www.careerjournal.com/columnists/cubicleculture/20060628-cubicle.html

Primary source: ‘Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home’ by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe, published April 2007

Posted by Lynette Spicer at 07:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

1. Requesting—one of the most dangerous types of email. Make sure it’s an appropriate request, something you really need, easily understood so the person doesn’t waste time doing something you didn’t really want. Ask for one thing or if several, then related things. When requesting, make the request stand out as one question in its own paragraph, or if several related questions, number or asterisk them.

2. Responding--If you can’t fill a request, be honest and fast. Don’t leave the requester with a ‘maybe’ that’s never going to happen. If a request is sent to many people, let the most vested people respond. You may add later, “I agree” or just not respond. It’s appropriate to use the out-of-office assistant when you’re busy, “I’m in the office but working on a project and may not be able to respond before next week.” You may use phrases such as “On the run” or “Racing to a meeting” or “More to follow” to express you would reply if you could.

3. Informing—sharing information quickly and efficiently. Make it clear you don’t expect a response. You can note FYI (for your information).

4. Thanking—email can be an appropriate method to thank people for small things. It can be the beginning to thank someone for bigger things; continue with a phone call or better yet, a hand-written note.

5. Apologizing—face-to-face or another more personable way is more appropriate. When you apologize, do it in the active voice. “I made a mistake” rather than “Mistakes were made.”

6. Connecting—to strengthen or confirm relationships. This may be the most essential email of all.

All posts about email, many based on 'Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home' by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe, published April 2007
Subject: Your professionalism shows in e-mail
Think before you send. Send email you would like to receive.
The human touch, alternatives to email
Email emotions -- duplicity and anger including sarcasm, loaded phrases and rhetorical questions
The strengths and weaknesses of email
Work email and personal email are quite different in two ways

Posted by Lynette Spicer at 08:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

1. Work email benefits my employer; personal email is for my benefit
Separating personal and work email is a matter of ethics. My employer is not paying me to send emails to relatives or friends unless it’s somehow related to work. I view email as I view phone calls. Occasional personal communication at work may be fine but more is not. Managing personal crises, of course, requires immediate attention no matter where you are.

Keep separate accounts for your work email and your personal email. Use Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail or an account supplied by your home Internet provider to write to friends and relatives. I’ve had relatives find my work email and send a message. I copy their message over to my personal account and respond, asking that they use that address in the future.

Employers have the ability to monitor all outgoing Internet traffic. When I send e-mails on my personal account from my work computer, it can be monitored. I don’t want more workplace rules so I need to be ethically diligent about personal email. I can send personal messages before or after work from my home computer on my personal account.

2. The tone and style of writing are different
Personal email is not just an exchange of information but preserving or enhancing a relationship. It’s an important connection in today’s world where friends and relatives are scattered and very few people write letters. I don’t have to think about time zones, if they have children they’re trying to calm down for sleep or which stationery to use. Certainly there are times the phone or a mailed letter is more appropriate, but email keeps me connected with people I might otherwise lose in an increasingly isolated and busy world.

Work email should have a more formal tone. Often it doesn’t and that creates an unprofessional image. It’s difficult to decide the tone for different work relationships. How well do I know the person? What is my status compared to theirs? What is the culture of the workplace?

Email is a seductive communication method
The one dimension of it invites ethical and professional lapses. Civility evaporates. We create our own problems such as unprofessional never-ending banter and mixing personal and work email. Think about where and when you are composing and about your writing style before you push ‘send’.

Related articles
The Workplace: Your company monitors your personal e-mail, The International Herald Tribune, http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/05/business/workcol06.php
Surfing the Net on Your Boss's Time, About.com: Career Planning, http://careerplanning.about.com/cs/bosscoworkers/a/net_at_work.htm
Should one answer personal e-mail at work?, Expert Village, http://homegarden.expertvillage.com/experts/personal-email-work.htm
Putting All Your E-Mail in One Basket, The New York Times, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B00E7DA163AF935A15755C0A9659C8B63&sec=technology&spon=&pagewanted=1

Posted by Lynette Spicer at 08:06 PM | Permalink

More notes from ‘Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home’ by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe published April 2007.

The strengths of email
1. Email works for exchanging essential information. (Who is coming to the meeting?)
2. You can reach almost anyone.
3. Email knows no time zones.
4. Email provides a searchable record.
5. You can craft your message on your terms and your schedule.
6. You can preserve and present parts or all of a string of existing emails.
7. You can attach and include additional information.

When I look at the strengths, I can easily see flipping some of those to be weaknesses. Maybe most important is whatever you write and send is preserved whether you like it or not. Don’t hit the send button too quickly.

Reasons you may not want to send email
1. The ease of email encourages unnecessary exchanges. Don’t over respond. Some people just want the last word. There’s a time to end emails. Do you stop by a colleague’s office every 10 minutes for a chat? When someone requests something you’ve already said you won’t do, it’s fine to stop responding. When a conversation is clearly over, you don’t need to reply.
2. Email should not replace all phone calls.
Rule: conveying an emotion, handling a delicate situation, testing the waters—all are usually better undertaken with the human voice.
3. You can reach everyone, but everyone can reach you. Email is so intimate and so easy that it makes unwise actions likely. Don’t assume instant familiarity.
4. Every email is an interruption. Forty percent of workers moved on to completely new tasks after they were interrupted, leaving their old task behind, neglected and unfinished.
5. You can be held accountable for your electronic correspondence. The authors’ rule is: If you’re working with weasels, watch their emails like a hawk.
6. Assume everything you write will be forwarded somewhere.
7. Your words or the sender’s original words can be changed. This is a nasty, nasty thing to do. The one instance I’ve heard about recently, I’d refer you to the rule in point 5.
8. Email attachments are baggage. Pack carefully and travel light. If you’re sending to someone you suspect might be on a handheld, provide a summary of what the attachment includes. That courtesy could be extended for all emails.

Posted by Lynette Spicer at 06:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This week (already) I’ve responded to e-mail messages that had little jabs. I was tempted to write, “I’m responding as professionally as I can.” Those emails made me contemplate the relationship of professionalism and civility. I concluded Civility = Professionalism but you are certainly free to disagree.

More embellishments on and notes from ‘Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home’ by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe published April 2007.

Duplicity (deceitfulness, being twofold or double, belying true intentions by deceptive words) Examples: Knowledge becomes power so you distribute information selectively. Acting like a double agent.

Anger Would you say it in person? If not, don’t ‘send’. Flaming is sending messages that are deliberately hostile and insulting. Wikipedia says “Sometimes, flamers are attempting to assert authority, or establish a position of superiority. Other times, the flamer is simply a closed-minded or biased individual whose conviction that his is the only valid opinion leads him to personally attack any dissenters." This is the ugly side of email.

Sarcasm rarely works in emails. It takes an ability to perceive nonverbal signals so probably is understood only by those who know you very well. Sarcasm can be cutting and condescending; some people will understand your message as just that.

Loaded phrases put particular emphasis on your power over someone and sound impatient, patronizing and sarcastic.
I can’t imagine why…
You’ll have to…
Is it too much to ask…
Why in the world…
It seems odd that…
Just curious, but…
Please explain to me…

Rhetorical questions can be debilitating.
What were you thinking?
Did you really say that?
What ever gave you that idea?

The real question
Why do I need to assert my dominance? If you wouldn’t make the comment to another in person, don’t put it in an email.

“Let me give you two pieces of advice. One is practical. And one is more theoretical. Never talk when you can nod. And never write when you can talk. My only addendum is never put it in an email. The other piece of advice I would give is that I don't think you can teach ethics. You can teach it by behavior. By the time someone's in business school, if they're not going to get it, it's just a risk-reward analysis to them. The one way we're going to bring people back into the system is shame. The shame of being smeared across the headlines will work. Shame. And when you hire someone, buy them a copy of "Bonfire of the Vanities*." It makes the point that nobody is beyond reproach. Everybody can be subjected to that. That's incredibly important.”
–Eliot Spitzer, Governor of New York (1959 - )
Conclusion in a speech on federalism, corporate governance and Wall Street settlements

The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe, 1990 first printing is 659 pages.
(I’ve read Wolfe since JlMC 464, Journalism and Literature. Let me know if you want to read my copy.)

Posted by Lynette Spicer at 07:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

More notes from ‘Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home’ by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe published April 2007. I was surprised and happy the authors touched on when to use other communication methods. This is one of the most important messages of the book in my opinion.

Rule: conveying an emotion, handling a delicate situation, testing the waters—all are usually better undertaken with the human voice.

A handwritten note is personal. Unfortunately it’s a rarity these days. See ‘When did you last receive a hand-written note?’

A phone call is intimate because you interact in real time. You can hear the vocal inflections, the hesitations and react to them.

A conversation in person brings all your senses into play. You can observe the gestures, the facial expressions, hear the emotion...and react accordingly.

Communicating with a handwritten note, a phone call or in person has weight that email will never have.

Email is a silent method of communication
Technology should complement personal communication, not do away with it. For example, email can be a good method to confirm a joint decision. Email doesn’t work for decision-making that involves a lot of equal voices.

As someone noted in a comment this week, some work groups find Instant Messaging effective for collaborative efforts. I tried IM for a short time with an eXtension colleague but didn't give it much of a chance so I'd be interested in how you use it for work and your comments, pro and con for IM.

Posted by Lynette Spicer at 06:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

David Shipley and Will Schwalbe, authors of ‘Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home’, published in April, hope readers of their book take away two points--
Think before you send.
Send email you would like to receive.
The book is brimming with common-sense. How appropriate. Common sense seems to abandon us when we use email, when we don’t have the personal cues of voice or expressions to monitor and adapt our messages.

Office workers in the United States spend at least 25 percent of the day on email and countless hours on their handhelds. Email is overused and misused.

The goal: write email that is so effective that it cuts down on email
The authors use SEND as an acronym for proofreading any message before you hit the send key:
Simple, cut out the unnecessary words and sentences.
Effective, focus on the right tone for your relationship with the receiver, focus on what you want to communicate
Necessary, is your message frivolous? If you don’t need to know something, don’t ask. At the opposite end of the spectrum, personal email that reinforces your connection to another person is important.
Done, are you trying to move things along or just pass your work on to someone else? Everyone respects the person who takes on tough jobs, gets things done and shares the credit.

Email is not an easy written medium to get right, sometimes it’s far too easy to use
What is your relationship to the person you’re writing? That’s the first consideration. Set the right tone and formality in your writing. It’s easy to slip into communication that is too casual for the relationship. University professors have added netiquette pointers to their syllabi to set a professional relationship with their students. The authors contend that email has a tendency to “encourage the lesser angels of our nature”. In email, we are angrier, less sympathetic, less aware, more easily wounded, more gossipy and duplicitous, they say.

I’ll do several posts using this book as a reference. The book is more than 200 pages, an enjoyable read. Some of the details were tedious but as I reviewed what I’d highlighted, it made me aware of the capriciousness with which we use email and the amount of time involved. Email has its place in our communications but we can all probably improve that communication. I’ll share more with you now and then in the coming weeks. I’ll write on personal email vs. work email, when the phone or in person conversations are better than email, emotional email.

Posted by Lynette Spicer at 06:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

E-mail
has no verbal clues or nuances
has no body language
can be easily misconstrued
often is conceived in haste and too casually for the workplace
can be combative, complex, emotional or ambiguous
can be hazardous to relationships and careers

The human touch is often missing
There’s no immediate give and take of conversation. E-mail can facilitate incivility. Curt e-mails are interpreted as ‘snippy’. If someone takes offense at your e-mail, don’t blame the recipient for misinterpretation. Apologize and learn. Work to improve your e-mails or use the phone or talk in person.

When to use and when not to use e-mail
Do--E-mail works best for short, straightforward information or requests.
Don’t—Ask questions for which you have the answers if you’d just look.
Do—Think about what else you need to request or write in this e-mail to communicate clearly.

Don’t--Gonthier in ‘Rude Awakenings’ says
“Problem: e-mailing trivial information or brief messages to someone whose office is close by.
Solution: Face-to-face communication is still the best way to solve a problem, create camaraderie and spread goodwill. “Hiding behind e-mail is antisocial!””

The parts of a civil e-mail message
Subject lines are very important. Give the recipient an idea of the content.

Gonthier says e-mail salutations are important for civility. Rather than launching into the message, begin with ‘Greetings Leo’ or ‘Dear Jill’. I think it’s quite nice to receive e-mails that have a salutation… a touch of class. It adds some warmth to a very one-dimensional method of communication.

Your e-mail signature should be no more than six lines. It should contain your name, title and organization, street address, e-mail address and telephone. Your organization Web site is a nice addition. Quotes or sayings are not appropriate on workplace signatures.

Sloppy communication skills are correlated with sloppy and disjointed thinking
Answer the questions you’ve been asked.
If you need time to respond, have the courtesy to let the person know.
Flaming is venting emotions online. I think most everyone understands that typing in all capital letters is the equivalent of shouting and obviously, not a civil thing to do….not to mention what readership surveys tell us: all caps are hard to read.
Humor, irony and sarcasm are difficult to express.
Shorthand acronyms are not appropriate. (LOL for laughing out loud, etc.) All lower case letters are not acceptable either.
When you send to a group of people asking for information or wanting action, many assume someone else will reply. And when you are the one who does reply, copy the group so everyone knows the e-mail has been answered.

Don’t be too quick
Don’t send e-mails that go on…and on; people won’t read them. Edit your e-mails. Get to the point of the message. Focus on one point at a time and if you have too many points, try several e-mails or use the telephone. The time spent clarifying and editing will save you time later explaining what you meant.

Read over every e-mail before you hit ‘send’. Run spell-check. It doesn’t matter if the message goes to a coworker you’ve known for years or your new supervisor. It’s a reflection of you. And know, there will be times that something as simple as ‘it’ will be sent as ‘is’.

If in doubt, particularly when you’re upset…when you receive the e-mail that just sets you off... type a response and put it in your draft folder. Think about it. Often you’ll decide to trash it. Sometimes just the act of typing it provides some relief. Often it’s better to pick up the telephone or if possible, go talk to the person. Work to resolve the conflict so you can move on.

We all should be aware that any e-mail message can be sent to people we never anticipated would see the message. If information is sensitive or confidential or heated, don’t use e-mail.

One of the best e-mails I’ve ever written was six sentences. I got immediate action. I edited it off and on for several hours to get those sentences to the powerhouse stage. I suspect the people who received it thought I typed it in a matter of minutes.

Published this month
Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe
I have a copy ordered. Amazon.com has editorial reviews (click through to ‘more reviews’) and then below the details on the authors, read the excerpt from the introduction to the book. Entertaining and enlightening. I imagine it will give me fodder for more posts on using e-mail.

“The two words ‘information' and ‘communication' are often used interchangeably, but they signify quite different things. Information is giving out; communication is getting through.”
--Sydney Harris, American journalist and author (1917-1986)

Posted by Lynette Spicer at 06:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)