Office emails need to be handled very carefully, as the staff at PwC learnt last week. Careers expert Eoghan McDermott deals with email etiquette following the saga.
In the first quarter of 2006, 171 billion emails were sent on their electronic way daily. Email is now the main tool for many executives when they want to brief, query or confirm an issue with another executive.
“Issue†is the word executives use instead of “thing†because their “things†are much more important than yours or mine and they want everyone to know that. As we read last week there were plenty of emails doing the rounds in PWC and elsewhere briefing, querying and attempting to confirm the top 10 lookers in that organisation.
The lads who sent the mails may be bright and committed to becoming accountants and great at the ol’ sums but they didn’t come to the right answer when they questioned themselves if this was a good idea. Except it’s pretty clear that they couldn’t have asked themselves the question.
Political correctness
If they’re computer-literate or internet-literate to even a small degree, they must have known that what you put in an email stays forever, ready to bite you in the ass at some later stage. They must have known that anything witty, salacious or sneaky-pie in any email to anybody, is going to get bumped on to someone else.
The lads were obviously unaware of Rule #1 on emails…Don’t put anything in writing that can come back to haunt you. The litmus test for this is the oldest in the world: Would I like my mother to see this? If their respective mothers are raunchy broads who love a bit of sexually inappropriate emailing then an alternative question to ask is: Would I be happy to hear this read in a HR meeting or in open court by the barrister representing the person who is suing me?
It doesn’t just apply to casual sexism. Casual terrorism will catch you up too. Like the chap who, jokingly, said he was going to blow up an airport because his flight was delayed on Twitter. The courts found that his joke was a real threat and upheld his conviction last week. (Weirdly, he too was an accountant.)
Leaving aside the “political correctness gone mad†debate, the reality is that people get into awful trouble with injudicious web use. So, for any of you reading this that are considering sending an email that has given you a giggle, think about it for a second. Ask yourself those questions (the ones about your mum and court) and that should give you some guidance. And keep you and your company off the front page of the Irish Independent.
Eoghan McDermott is Head of The Careers Clinic in The Communications Clinic and is the author of The Career Doctor- How to Get and Keep the Job You Want.
If you have a question about your job or career that Eoghan could help you with, let us know and we’ll pass it on. Send your questions to [email protected].
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