DOS & DON’TS

Respond immediately: Reply to emails in 60 seconds; if it’s an ongoing mail, let the sender know that you’re working on it

Use your signature at the end of your mail: That is, if you don’t want others to think you pressed ‘Send’ erroneously

Full stops: Use in mail but avoid in texts to not seem aggressive

Caps lock: Unless you want to be perceived as shouting in your texts and mails, limit or preferably avoid the use of this feature on your device

Stress inducing subject lines: A mail with a subject line that says, “Meet CEO in her office” or “Call me immediately” without any context could stress the receiver unnecessarily

Avoid abbreviations: Unless they are well known (e.g., np for ‘no problem’) and not considered inappropriate for the work setting. In a professional setting use full sentences

Agree to abbreviations for common phrases: Once commonly agreed, ‘no need to respond’ can be abbreviated as NNTR and ‘urgent’ can be “SOS”

Avoid emojis and exaggerated punctuation marks: Emojis are certainly best avoided in professional mails; also be careful of the punctuation marks you feel tempted to use against a line (e.g., exclamation marks)

Don’t mark mails urgent unless they are

Choose brevity in mails: If you have a lot of information to share via the email, divide it into summary (in bullet points) and details so that it’s easy for the receiver to skim through it to get a gist of the mail

Keep texts short: Avoid letting your texts go into more than three sentences

Remember the hierarchy while filling the ‘To’, ‘CC’ and ‘BCC’ fields: Ensure you fill in the names as per hierarchy of the person’s designation and relevance regarding the mail

Follow the leaders’ cue: If the boss is formal, keep your responses formal too

Proofread your messages: Always check for grammatical errors and punctuation mark and spelling errors before hitting the send button on the message

Avoid messaging confidential stuff: While the messages may get deleted on the server and end-to-end encryption may promise privacy, remember screenshots are possible too

Avoid messaging or getting distracted with your phone when in a meeting: Well, that’s just rude, buddy.

Period