A Review on Email Etiquette While Working Remotely
A Review on Email Etiquette while Working Remotely
Like many companies right now we are adjusting to employees working remotely. An email can become the strongest method that someone has to communicate with other team members. So we thought it would be helpful to brush up on our email communication skills.
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- Subject line: Keep your subject line clear and direct. Avoid all caps, all lower case, using URL’s and exclamation points, these are spam notifiers which can delay production. Your subject line should match the message, never hit reply and send a message that has nothing to do with the previous one. Feel free to change as soon as the thread subject changes.
- Body: Be concise, provide the key facts, ask the question, or draw the conclusion clearly. Use lots of white space, and use bullet points so you don’t overwhelm your recipient.
- Confirm receipt: Even if you can not answer the questions right away be sure to let your recipient know you received it and are working the issue. Alternatively, feel free to include “No Reply Necessary” to reduce the number of messages coming in.
- Closing: Include a call to action or next step, letting your recipient know how he should respond.
- Add the email address last: This prevents accidentally sending your email before it’s ready.
- Maintain privacy: Protect the privacy of your email list by using the “Bcc”
- Replying: Think twice before hitting “reply all”, no one wants to read emails that have nothing to do with them?
One of the most important things to keep in mind, the person working away from the office loses the backstory so be transparent in your communications.
I hope you find this brush up helpful as a journey through a new world. And remember, we will get through this, we have learned so much in the past. We are prepared for this new challenge. This is a time to prove how resilient and compassionate we still are as a society.
Stay Safe
