Making Etiquette Easy: Email with Ease

We've all been up to our ears in emails before with a daunting number of unread emails growing exponentially each day. The once recognizable and catchy AOL notification, “You’ve Got Mail,” is now a sound of stress and dread. With fast-paced work environments, multiple meetings and many of us adding travel to the mix, it is not uncommon for more than a thousand unread emails to stack up in record time. This can quickly lead to stress if you do not find ways to tackle your email bounty. Try considering the following tips to de-clutter your inbox and email with less stress and more ease.
 

-The appropriate turnaround window for an email is usually 24-36 hours after you having received it. Even if you don't anticipate being able to fully answer an email or question in that set amount of time, consider shooting a quick email back to the sender letting them know you received the email and will have an answer for them soon. Then set a personal deadline to respond. Hint: always do a quick “drive by” of emails in the bottom of your inbox so you don’t miss something…

-Remove yourself from website mailing lists you rarely follow. Today, it is common for websites to require an email address before perusing their site, even if you’re a onetime user. Thus, you are instantly enrolled in their newsletter which is sure to fill your inbox with several emails a day with mostly useless information. Go through you inbox and unsubscribe to all newsletters you feel you can live without. However, after doing this if you still find yourself overwhelmed with mailing list emails, try creating a separate email account devoted to these types of inquiries. This way, you are able to read through them at your leisure without getting in the way of more important emails that require a timely response. 

-Organize your inbox. Every email program gives you the capability to sort emails into folders. Utilize the folder system to create an organizational structure to house your emails. An example of this would be, creating folders ranging in priority/importance, so when it is time for you to answer some of these emails you’ll know what emails need to be taken care of immediately versus the emails that can wait to be addressed later. Consider sorting your emails during the initial pass, so the email will be waiting for you in its respective folder without you giving it a second thought. For critical emails, there is also a flagging function in most email providers that you can use to highlight your most time sensitive emails.
 

 If all else fails, try delegating some of your emails to your employees, as appropriate. This should take some of the pressure off as you manage your inbox. 

   Photo Courtesy of: Geralt

Making Etiquette Easy: Email Signatures

Image from Flickr

Email signatures- how you sign off at the bottom of an email is intended to wrap up the message in a polite and thoughtful way. For the most part, it should go relatively unnoticed. But like many of you, I've found myself uncomfortable finishing emails in ways that seem too formal, far too casual, or just plain odd.

Since many of us wear different hats (boss, coworker, volunteer, parent, etc.), you'll want to be sure to use the right signature for the right situation. Here are some overall guidelines:

• Be Consistent: Abruptly changing your email signature to an individual or client can signal a change in emotion. For example, if you've been signing off with, "Looking forward to hearing from you," a change to "Thanks" can be seen as a brush-off. Try to keep the flow with the same signature.
• Think before you Send: Email signatures are mostly common sense. For example, you wouldn't want to send a complaint email ending in "Warmly." Make sure the signature is appropriate for the message.
• Superior Signatures: If you're emailing your boss or a superior, an attitude of gratitude is always appropriate. Opt for "Thank you" or "Thanks very much."
• Resume Sign-offs: If you're trying to secure a job, the basic signatures we all know and love work best. Use "Sincerely yours" or "Truly yours" to establish your loyalty.
• Non-Professional Signatures: With other parents, coaches, volunteers or committee members outside of work, the best signature to use is "Best" or "All the Best."
• Acquaintance Signatures: If you know someone, but not that well, or if you've dissolved a friendship/relationship, a polite and transparent "Warmly" or "Kindly" works well. If there is an ongoing conflict, "Respectfully yours" is a politically correct way to go.
• Family: This is the only category where "Love" is acceptable (and kisses, etc.).

When in doubt, you can always use the tried and true, "Kind Regards" to sign off any email. It may come off a bit formal to some, but as I've learned through life, I'd rather be 'too dressed up' than not.

Making Etiquette Easy: Telemarketers

Image from www.photobucket.com

You’re sitting at the dinner table and the phone rings. Against your better judgment, you pick up, only to hear the familiar insurgence of sales words. Telemarketers can be downright frustrating, and it’s easy to consider dismissing them with the click of a dial tone. Since it’s not the person and rather the company you are really angry at, remember these things next time you get an unwanted call:

• Check Caller ID: If you have Caller ID, this is probably the easiest way to filter unwanted calls. If it’s a really bad time or you’re in a bad mood, don’t pick up. If you are ready to confront the issue politely and prevent these calls in the future, pick up with a friendly voice.
• Hear them out: Always try to patiently wait out their introductory speech. It’s likely as hard for them as it is for you. Wait until there is a break in the conversation before you interrupt.
• Express your disinterest: Be clear about your intentions. Leading a telemarketer on is not only rude, but it is costing them valuable commission money they could be making on another customer.
• You can be politely stern. If the telemarketer isn’t complying after you’ve expressed your disinterest, sternly state your ground again.
• Ask to be removed from their call list. An easy way to end these encounters in the future (ignoring them doesn’t mean they won’t keep calling) is to ask for a confirmation number that they’ve removed you. Then visit, www.donotcall.gov to manually remove yourself from most calling lists.
• At last resolve, if the person will not stop soliciting you, you’ve done all you can. Let them know you are going to disconnect the line, and then do so.

Making Etiquette Easy,

Susan K. Medina

Making Etiquette Easy: Internet Forums

Image from www.celebratehomecare.com

Internet forums, chat rooms, and fan sites attract a wide audience. From avid sports fans, gamers, or stay at home moms who want to give advice, it’s safe to say that the viral communication is going on 24/7. The beauty of these forums- whether membership-based or open to the public, is that anyone can join in. The downside is that foul play tends to run amuck…

• You are free to be anonymous, but keep it nice. Lots of folks tend to get extra-heated about controversial topics and voice their anger through forums. And even though anyone can state anything under their alias name, it doesn’t make it okay to be disrespectful.
• Do not use all caps. Using all caps is the equivalent of shouting at someone, and it’s distracting to read as well.
• If you are posting feedback, make sure it’s relevant. Comments like “Agreed” are best left unsaid. Try to bring value to a conversation thread or refrain from typing at all. In that respect, read the posts beforehand to make sure you aren’t cutting in with a random thought.
• Keep your signatures (anonymous or not) small and to the point. People enter these chat rooms and forums to read content, not your bio.
• Always keep on topic. Don’t dig up old threads to respond to that have clearly been archived for a long time. There’s a reason the conversation didn’t go anywhere the first time.
• When posting pictures, make sure they are web-appropriate. Nothing controversial (or oversized) should distract from your message.

Making Etiquette Easy,

Susan K. Medina

Making Etiquette Easy: Taking Pictures

Image from www.sheknows.com

We carry cameras with us everywhere- from small digital cyber shots to smart phone applications, we can capture anything at nearly any time. And in a society that is visually-driven, it can be hard to draw the line between privacy and public. Here are some pieces of the ‘bigger etiquette picture:’

• Are pictures allowed? Check to see if you can take photographs. Some historical places and churches have stiff rules about photographs and you might risk getting in trouble.
• Out takes: Never take pictures near or in dressing rooms, near cash wraps or where sensitive information might be displayed, or near any other places that could be seen as incriminating.
• Do not block people: If you are in a public place, such as a concert, make sure your photographs don’t obstruct the view for other people.
• Ask permission: If you are taking pictures that include strangers, you should certainly ask their permission. If not before, be sure to show them the photograph and ask their permission to keep it.
• Post Protection: Prior to uploading photos of others on your computer to share with the world, be sure to get permission from the other people in the pictures. It is not appropriate for them to find out their embarrassing photos from college have been shared with the world without their consent. If you question anything, wait.

Making Etiquette Easy,

Susan K. Medina

Making Etiquette Easy: IM Overload

Image from blog.adlib-english.com

Instant Messaging, once a personal feature on our computers and public email domains, has now become fairly commonplace in corporate offices. Used as an inter-community real-time messaging service, it has a lot of pluses and minuses associated with it. When you've got a lot to do and not a lot of time to waste, it can be irritating to have to field multiple message boxes. Here's what you do when you're too busy to chit chat:

• Evaluate your work: Lots of tech-related companies necessitate the need for quick communications. If you work in one of those companies, you're getting paid to try and juggle your responsibilities accordingly. If not, you're not required to participate.
• Block: Most messaging services have a 'block' feature, something that allows you to not receive any messaging or at least remain 'invisible' or 'inactive.' It's not an offensive thing to do, and you shouldn't have to apologize for needing to work on work time.
• "Busy": If you're unable to cut off all communication ties for some reason, you can simply let the other person know you are unable to communicate by stating that you're busy or that you'll talk later.
• Talk with HR: If it becomes a problem and your coworkers won't quit, you may want to chat with HR about implementing some regulations on IM-ing.
• If you're the one trying to message, be sure you always check to see if the other party is free to chat. Set up away messages when you're unavailable, and when you are available- keep memo's brief and to the point.

Making Etiquette Easy,

Susan K. Medina

Making Etiquette Easy: When to Call

Image from www.stevenalston.com

With technology insisting that no one is ever truly ‘unavailable,’ it can be hard at times to distinguish between whether you should call someone or not. Here are a few guidelines to dialing ten digits the right way:

• Office Hours: Not sure someone is on the clock or not? As a general rule of thumb, try to call between the normal office hours of 9am and 6pm, unless invited to do otherwise by the recipient.
• Time Zones: Pay attention before you dial sunny California at 9am New York time. No one enjoys being woken up at 6am by a work call.
• Work or Cell: Always try contacting a person first by their work number. If they are unavailable or it is urgent, then move on to calling their cell phone.
• Home Office: Don’t assume that just because someone has an ‘office line’ that they have an office outside the home. Many people call and leave voicemails in the midnight hour assuming that they will be received when the person gets ‘into their office.’ But with a home office, calls at that hour wake up the whole house.
• Pocket Program: If you’ve programmed a contact into your phone, be sure you have the key lock pad on when the phone isn’t in use. This prevents them from having to listen to your side conversations and regretting that they gave you their number.

Making Etiquette Easy,

Susan K. Medina

Making Etiquette Easy: Spoiler Alerts

www.channels.com

Season Finale’s are just around the corner as the month of May answers the questions of international audiences everywhere. Shows like LOST, American Idol, The Office, and the like garner millions of Twitter, Facebook, and forum postings everyday. With all the hype, it can make for some great water cooler chit chat at work. Here are the rules of spoiler etiquette to make sure neither side (the viewer or the yet-to-view) is in the offensive:

• From the East to the West: Before making comments about any highly-anticipated show, make sure that everyone has had a chance to see it. Nothing is more frustrating than an East Coaster announcing the winner of a reality competition before it has even aired in your state.
• Link to a 2^nd Site: If you must get something off of your chest online, make sure you link your thoughts to a second site, making sure your original post acknowledges the fact that you are giving away a ‘spoiler.’ For instance, “I can’t believe I know who won.”
• 24 Hour Rule: If you haven’t seen the show within 24 hours, it is not reasonable to expect people to hold it in any longer. If you missed it, you missed it - bummer. This goes for work as well, and would be in bad taste for you to ask coworkers to stop talking about it until you see it.

Making Etiquette Easy,

Susan K. Medina

Making Etiquette Easy: Dropped Calls

Image from www.carrievillnes.com

How often do we find ourselves feeling like part of a local advertisement, yelling ‘can you hear me now?’ and running about until we find a place with better coverage? There will always be glitches with technology and we have got to find a better way to continue our conversations in a socially congenial way. Here are some tips to guide you when you can’t hear the person on the other line or the call drops:

• State their name in a question form no more than two times before hanging up. Repeating the persons name loudly and multiple times is inconsiderate to those around you and isn’t really helping the situation; If they’re not there, hang up.
• If a call is dropped, as a general rule of thumb, the person who initiated the call should be responsible for calling the second party back. This will help alleviate confusion when both lines are trying to dial one another, consequently canceling out the call again.
• When they do pick up, continue on with the conversation. We all know that phones have problems or accidents happen, and there is no need to rehash the story of something that has happened and will happen an infinite amount of times.
• Remember to keep your voice at a low to medium tone when you suspect someone may no longer be on the line. If they were still on the line, it can be very abrasive to hear someone yell through the phone, especially in a professional setting.
• If you are waiting on a person to call back after a dropped call, it is okay to try and contact them if it has been more than a minute or two.
• Still thankful for technology and...

Making Etiquette Easy,

Susan K. Medina

Making Etiquette Easy: Facebook Profile

Image from www.facebook.com

Balancing both work life and personal life on social networking sites has become quite a tricky web. If not monitored from a professional eye, unintended consequences can unravel both sides of your life as quickly as the click of a mouse. Because Facebook mixes personal and professional lives unlike strictly business-related sites such as LinkedIn, it requires more mindful posting.

Here are some things to remember to assure your online reputation is free from scrutiny:

The Profile Pic: Facebook, contrary to what some believe, cannot be 100% personal by nature. Anything posted for the world to see is never "personal." With more and more employers counting on this tool to discover more about future hires, it is crucial that you keep your profile image appropriate and professional (or at least neutral). Avoid pictures with costumes, in bathing suits, before going out to a nightclub in a slinky dress (ladies), glamour shots, or cartoon-like pictures. A look through your current ‘friends list’ should help you spot the no-no’s. If you are tagged inappropriately in photographs, remove the tag and contact the ‘poster’ to remove the images that include you at all.

The Info Section: Thanks to Facebooks’ improved privacy settings, you can control who views your interests. You may consider allowing certain groups of people to see what you recreationally like to do on the weekends, while keeping religious and political affiliations hidden. A description of you should be concise and clear. Avoid using it as a bragging tool, and be mindful not to make anything too personal.

Not only are employers searching social sites for background information before and after hiring, but I read recently where 66 percent of attorney's surveyed surveyed by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML) called Facebook the leader for online divorce evidence followed by MySpace (15 percent) and Twitter (5 percent) - Facebook users evidently provide a wealth of incriminating information for more than one audience.

Inputing links and updates: Use this to share information about your expertise and interests. People love to do business with people that they feel a greater connection to, be it in person or online. It is not a platform to use obscene language, link to random or irrelevant sites, or post inappropriate photographs. Know when to draw the line on posting—people tend to get bored when they hear from you too much. Keep information interesting, appropriate, and newsworthy. Remember, a first impression can only be made once and your reputation is crucial to a successful and meaningful career.

Making Etiquette Easy,

Susan K. Medina

Making Etiquette Easy: Text Me

Ahhhh, technology. Text messaging is a conveniently sly mechanism for allowing us to connect with anyone at any time without obligation. Perhaps we use it when we are avoiding a confrontation, when it’s really ‘too late to call,’ or when we only have a minute, but really want to reach out to a friend. As texting is aligning itself with email in today’s business environment, here are a few things to consider when contacting coworkers or clients using this medium:

NO TXT JARGON: I'm guilty of this and am working hard to stop my use of txt jargon (oops). Try not use common text abbreviations—and there are thousands—from LOL to NVM, they set the tone for an unprofessional conversation. It is the equivalent of using harsh slang in English. If you think about it, it doesn’t take much more time to type the whole word.

Grammer City: Though there isn’t an auto spell check on most phones, it’s important to keep everything accurate. People judge people by their spelling- it’s just a true fact of life.

In a Bundle: When you send out a group text regarding business activities, such as a change in meeting time, etc, address the text as you would to the most formal recipient on the list.

Timing is Everything: People tend to text message much later into the night than they would phone someone. It’s important to realize that phones are attached at the hip, and that there is a chance of waking someone up. Try to text only normal working hours.

Making Etiquette Easy,

Susan K. Medina

Making Etiquette Easy: To Forward or not to Forward

In a time where digital junk mail can rival the tangible pieces in your mailbox, the practice of clicking ‘forward’ has become the norm. No matter how funny the jokes are or how pressing the matter seems to be, it’s important to ask, “Do I really want to forward this email?” Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• If the contents of the email are in any way libelous, offensive, racist, obscene, or inappropriate, your mouse should be racing for the ‘delete’ button. It is much better to verbalize what you heard later than to send it—in writing—in a public format for both obvious professional and legal reasons.
• If you’re at work, keep in mind that the company reserves the right to your time and likely has a way of tracking you down if you indulge in forwarding personal or non-work related emails at any point during the workday. It is unprofessional and can be a distraction to the recipients.
• People get annoyed; even though you might think something is going to be so funny for the recipient, you are gambling against a ‘please stop sending me these’ conversation. In no instance are chain letters okay, no matter how cleverly they are disguised. Your coworkers would rather risk ‘not having good luck for the next ten years’ for some sanity today.
• If you do choose to forward on appropriate/relevant emails, be sure to edit out all other forwarded info and headers, BCC all future recipients (to protect their privacy), and be sure to include a personal comment in the body of the text. Rename the subject of the email so they know whether it is urgent or not.

So think twice before you pass anything along. You are creating a reputation by every forward you send.

Making Etiquette Easy,

Susan K. Medina