Email has become the primary means of communication at work. Whether it is sent to an employee abroad or to Sophie whose office is down the hall, it has the advantage of being fast and allows the recipient to send a response when available. However, the email is far from trivial:its content can be heavy with meaning and give an indication of the personality of the interlocutor. For example, we know that using smileys affects credibility with colleagues, according to a study published in the summer of 2017. And small illustrations are not the only things to avoid integrating into email:certain expressions, because they convey a certain authority or condescension, are particularly irritating. IT company Adobe surveyed 1,000 US employees and found that they are irritated by phrases that imply they haven't (yet) responded to a previous email and are often mildly passive-aggressive. A quarter of respondents explained that "I don't know if you saw my last email but" was THE most annoying remark there is.
It is followed by “As stated in my last email” (13%) and “As explained during our last conversation” (11%). Effectively, that seems to mean that we lacked attention or worse, that we did not do our job properly. The top 5 is completed with “What about that? and “Sorry for the raise but”. Kristen Naragon, manager at Adobe, explains that it is not always easy to communicate everything in writing:"Emotion and intention are often difficult to convey by email, which is why certain sentences can impact productivity […] Colleagues, offended, may decide not to respond. This can damage the relationship eventually ". As you will have understood, it is not good to refer to a previous email left unanswered if you do not want the links with those of the open-space to deteriorate. If it's already been done, maybe a bag of croissants in the morning can fix things... In any case, with us, it would work!
