Questions tagged [email]
Questions about professional etiquette when communicating via email.
702
questions
148
votes
9
answers
19k
views
How to convince company to not go overboard with email signature?
The signature culture at my company is dangerously close to ridiculous, and this question made me ask about it here.
We're an MS Gold Ultra Colour Plus(tm)(c)(fm)(wtf) Partner which is apparently an ...
- 3,116
139
votes
12
answers
34k
views
Is it legal for company to use my work email to pretend I still work there? [duplicate]
I recently quit my job due to the toxic work environment.
My job involved email communication with our clients, and my boss has asked my coworkers to use my email to pretend to be me and talk to our ...
- 701
139
votes
8
answers
43k
views
HR at my new job just sent me an email saying that I am a volunteer. I've been working here two months under the impression that it's paid work
I started a part-time software development job two months ago. The company I work for has roughly 50% volunteers, but the position I applied for was paid (I still have a copy of the job advertisement)....
- 1,559
103
votes
12
answers
47k
views
Is it okay to slightly modify a forwarded email?
Sometimes when I forward a professional email, I find myself wanting to slightly modify it. Either because there's a small English mistake (I work with non-native speakers) or because, since they're ...
- 892
101
votes
10
answers
20k
views
In a company crossing multiple timezones, is it rude to send a co-worker a work email in the middle of the night?
I work in a company that spans multiple timezones, and I work with people who are in wildly different timezones from me.
For example, some of my coworkers are in the USA and work local hours, others ...
user5621
99
votes
13
answers
26k
views
Should I use my personal e-mail address, or my workplace one, when registering to external websites for work purposes?
I need to register at, for example, oracle.com and docker.com to download some (free) stuff, etc.
These accounts would be used only for the job I do at my company.
My company doesn't have any ...
- 753
94
votes
11
answers
26k
views
Should I tell an employee she's sabotaging herself, two weeks before I leave my job?
I am currently the manager of a team of 15 people. In two weeks' time I will leave this job for a totally different one, in a different sector and a neighbouring city.
At my current job, I have one ...
- 927
93
votes
17
answers
174k
views
How to proceed when remote boss doesn't answer emails?
My boss and I sit in different remote sites, several thousands of miles apart. We don't see each other often.
On several occasions in the last few months, I have sent him emails asking him for ...
- 6,065
90
votes
11
answers
27k
views
How to deal with an incendiary email that was recalled
I recently received a critical email from someone who works at a company I deal with. It made a number of broad and inaccurate criticisms of some work I'd done. Copying in several managers for good ...
- 3,526
90
votes
7
answers
16k
views
How should I respond to a colleague who refuses to email me task requests?
This morning one of our designers called me and asked me to complete a task. In order to have a written record, I asked him to email me, but he suddenly said he was going to talk to the manager and ...
- 732
89
votes
11
answers
16k
views
Response to a bugfix suggestion said to just report bugs (not suggest solutions). Is this typical? [closed]
I'm a new employee at a software company, and saw an email sent to an coworker from a system owner, but with the whole dev team CC'd, and it got me a bit worried about the environment. I'm recently ...
- 293
89
votes
5
answers
24k
views
One of my subordinates' child passed away, how can I inform my team?
One of the people who reports to me lost their son in an accident over the weekend. She has a lot of colleagues that rely on her on a daily basis. She is somewhat of a project owner on a project ...
- 5,125
88
votes
8
answers
32k
views
How to respond to people who overuse punctuation marks?
We all had that one email that contained a phrase similar to these examples:
Where are my files??????????
Or:
I am not sure this is a good idea!!!!!!!!!
I normally want to point out one of the ...
- 693
86
votes
13
answers
24k
views
What can I do to avoid potential charges for bribery?
I am currently in charge of contracts for my employer.
In the recent e-mail to the current holder of the service contract for the company, I casually stated that I wished to have a few Bonsai trees ...
- 609
84
votes
9
answers
23k
views
Should I reply to urgent emails if I am not fit for work?
Background:
I am on sick leave because of my manager: mental issues, specific problem discussed with MD and HR. I am trying to stay away from work-related emails.
Meanwhile, I am sick and all my ...
user38290
83
votes
14
answers
30k
views
How to deal with a manager who doesn't read emails and calls you out as incompetent as a result?
So my manager called me out in an email to quite a few stakeholders on a software development project, asking me why I hadn't gotten something done she earlier told me to get done.
The thing is, if ...
- 7,945
82
votes
17
answers
18k
views
How should I tell my colleagues that my last name comes first?
As someone from a culture in which the first name comes last and the last name comes first, it was always difficult for me to figure out how to correctly specify my name in an email.
For example, say ...
79
votes
5
answers
21k
views
Angry email from customer insisting he didn't get a refund [closed]
I run a time management app with a monthly subscription model that gives users the freedom to cancel whenever they feel like so. Normally if a customer cancels at the beginning of the month after they ...
78
votes
14
answers
22k
views
I'm being blamed for not responding to an email from a client that was directly addressed to coworker
I work in development and support for one of my company's products. I'm the only support employee, but there is another person that is above me. He's not technically a support employee, but he's ...
- 527
77
votes
8
answers
14k
views
Should I bother to reply to emails from recruiters when I'm already employed?
Every now and then I get an email from a recruiter with a position they want to offer me. These emails are normally offering jobs outside my area of expertise and asking for skills I simply don't have....
- 699
70
votes
5
answers
17k
views
How do I tell my boss to not use Comic Sans as their main email typeface?
My boss uses Comic Sans for all of their e-mails. I don't mind it for intra-company communications, but it doesn't strike me as very professional to send out to clients as it doesn't have a very good ...
- 937
66
votes
6
answers
33k
views
Email may have sent twice - is there an etiquette convention for this?
For this question, let's assume I needed to send an important email to a potential customer. Because of a problem with my email client, which rarely happens, two copies of the email are in my Sent ...
- 842
61
votes
6
answers
25k
views
How should I reply to an email which feels unprofessional after declining a technical interview/test?
I recently got a telephone call regarding a new opportunity.
We scheduled a technical Android test completion date on the coming Sunday/Monday.
The other party asked me how much I was getting paid ...
- 1,695
61
votes
10
answers
16k
views
How to handle it when someone drags in upper management to get you to solve a problem that they were the source of
So, I ran into an issue today. Generally, when I'm emailing someone to remind them that they've done something incorrectly, I limit the scope to them, their manager1, and my manager. I try to be ...
- 5,569
61
votes
11
answers
24k
views
I emailed my customer asking multiple questions. Their reply addressed only one. What is the polite way to point this out?
I asked the customer three questions, and they only answered one, as if the others didn't exist. I need answers to all those questions. Frankly, I find it a little rude that they didn't read my email ...
- 1,367
61
votes
6
answers
14k
views
Is there an etiquette for who goes in "CC" and who goes in "To" for emails?
I've noticed some of my colleagues seem to deliberately split up email recipients — some are in the "To" field and some are in the "CC" field. Is this a social cue whereby those CC'd aren't ...
- 573
61
votes
6
answers
228k
views
What is appropriate email follow-up etiquette after no response?
Sometimes I send emails and need a response. While not quite as bad as not being able to find denvercoder9, it sometimes happens I get no response.
This presents a problem if the request is something ...
- 111k
59
votes
17
answers
17k
views
How to get domain experts to answer questions correctly, completely & concisely
I'm a software developer working for a consultancy that undertakes a variety of projects in a variety of domains. Projects typically have a relatively short turnaround (e.g. a few months).
I find that ...
- 3,021
58
votes
6
answers
658k
views
What should a professional email address look like?
I've been starting a resume recently, and I'm struggling with picking an email.
What should a professional email address look like? Will employers look down on me if I have numbers at the end of my ...
- 1,127
57
votes
10
answers
15k
views
Is it strange to ask someone to ask someone else to do something, while CC'd?
Alice is a project manager.
Bob is a team lead
Chris is a team member.
Alice emailed Bob, and CC'd Chris, and said, "Bob, will you please ask Chris to do X??"
A few hours later, Alice IM'd Bob ...
- 2,988
56
votes
7
answers
20k
views
How to respond to an insistent recruiter's cold email?
In receiving a second cold email from a recruiter earlier today, I discovered I had missed the first among my usual sea of emails. The recruiter guilts me in the subject line, writing "I haven't heard ...
- 613
55
votes
11
answers
8k
views
Colleagues routinely only answer the first of my questions?
You send an e-mail with three questions to a colleague. They reply but only answer the first question. The questions are strongly related so you don't want to send three separate e-mails. However you ...
- 611
55
votes
5
answers
14k
views
How should I respond to a (positive) email about my career path that I don't think was supposed to come to me?
Late yesterday I recieved an email, it basically went like this
From : My Boss's boss's Boss
To: HR Director
CC: Jim, Joe, Bob, Sidney
HR Directory,
The following is my ...
- 5,569
52
votes
6
answers
37k
views
Need to respond to rude email. How do I do it?
I have been in contact with a supplier for a project. We are the client.
Things have been going OK up to a point, then I received a rude and mildly abusive email from one of the people (Bob) I've ...
- 1,231
51
votes
19
answers
24k
views
Does a one-line email response from a job seeker show a lack of interest?
A few weeks ago someone with less than 2 years of experience contacted me (via personal connections) asking me to help him find another job. The email cover letter was decent enough, showing his ...
- 19k
50
votes
12
answers
32k
views
I announced my resignation . . . and was completely ignored. What to do?
Background
I work as a software engineer (direct hire) for a small B2B SAAS company. Like most of the folks at the company, I work remotely and primarily communicate via Slack, Jira comments, and ...
- 637
50
votes
5
answers
20k
views
Boss not responding to my email about promotion
Last year during my amazing performance review, my boss said he submitted my name to be promoted to a higher officer position but he stated that he missed the cutoff so I’d have to wait until the next ...
- 529
50
votes
13
answers
16k
views
How to convince workplace I'm innocent [closed]
I'm in a bit of a predicament. Last week, an e-mail went out to boss and a few others from my e-mail address. It contained a number of rude remarks and strange insults.
Of course, I did NOT send ...
user137643
50
votes
7
answers
11k
views
How appropriate is it to forward interview requests mistakenly sent to me to the right person?
I just received an email from an HR recruiter requesting a phone interview followup for a job application. However I did not apply for the job. The company is reputable and the recruiter has a valid ...
- 111k
49
votes
6
answers
32k
views
How to politely tell someone they did not hit "reply to all" in an email?
It happens sometimes that somebody (likely) meant to reply all in an email chain, but (likely) accidentally just replied to the last person that sent the email. What is a polite way to inform them of ...
- 607
49
votes
8
answers
226k
views
How does one title a resignation email?
I am in a situation where I need to tell my current employer that I am leaving. This will be the first my manager hears of it; for reasons I don't want to discuss here, we have not had a meeting about ...
user16125
48
votes
7
answers
15k
views
Client wants me to interact with their end-customer, but through client's company email
I develop software and sell licenses to a client in a relationship that is technically non-exclusive but so far has been exclusive in practice i.e. they are an important client to me.
My client (let's ...
- 519
47
votes
10
answers
15k
views
Is being blunt in emails common in the workplace?
I'm still a student, but was talking to a friend about how when I email my professors/lecturers they tend to ignore the niceties, the greeting, everything except the main question in my email and send ...
- 629
46
votes
11
answers
27k
views
Co-Worker Overreacts to Request for Clarification
I received an email from a business user requesting an update of national identifiers for 1150 employees. Being the fairly new guy (I've been with the company for only a year), I looped in the other ...
user62478
46
votes
6
answers
366k
views
How to tell sender they forgot the attachment without embarrassing them?
So I got an email from someone reading "blah blah, X is attached". However the email has no attachments. Obviously they just forgot to attach X before hitting the send button.
How should I hint ...
- 571
44
votes
12
answers
224k
views
What's the politest way of writing when you have not received a reply? [duplicate]
Some counter-parties don't reply promptly, and my boss requires paper record like emailing them again e.g. after 7 business days additional to follow-up calls. My boss and I think my writing is very ...
user22656
44
votes
9
answers
32k
views
Replying to a group thread of welcoming me on my 1st day at new remote job
My supervisor started the e-mail thread of welcoming me to the team/department. Several team members has already replied (including the boss of my supervisor so I'm extra nervous) with a brief but ...
- 543
42
votes
3
answers
10k
views
How to deal with a colleague who consistently schedules meetings that should be emails? [duplicate]
I've got a great team to work in and I absolutely love my job, but one of my colleagues will continually insist on meetings, even/especially after a 'long' email discussion. They're often <= 30 ...
- 533
42
votes
6
answers
204k
views
How do I properly answer a rejection email?
I have recently applied for a job and I have received an email telling me that they had found someone already (so the problem was not my application, but the timing). Things like this happen, you have ...
- 891
41
votes
4
answers
16k
views
Potential new partner angry about first collaboration - how to answer email to close up this encounter in a graceful manner
I'm a in-house translator at a company. We sometimes test new freelance translators to help us when we are short of in-house resources.
One of our criteria for collaborating is to have the same tool ...
- 461