Responding to everyone, ALWAYS. The “Reply All” button has been overused for over a decade and people still do not learn. If you do not think that everyone needs to receive your response, please be kind to others in boxes that are already overloaded with client emails and other items. They do not need to see your dog threw up all over the inside of your car and this is why you will be missing today’s meeting. While in corporate, every department I worked with used to reply all to everyone on everything and it would get to a point where you would come back from a meeting and have 70 emails. Also, the annoying reply all action seems to occur by certain people during the weekends. Super duper fun to open up your Inbox on Monday mornings.
My email is soooo much more important than yours. I believe a red exclamation point on your email means that it is urgent and important. For example, a radio station highlighted an email last weekend that needed last minute guests due to cancellations. Good choice of the red exclamation point. What is not a good use goes along the lines that I just sent an email out to 100 people wondering why they have not RSVP’d to an event in July. Um. Please think 2x before you click on the red.
The “right now” syndrome. My personal favorite. When you receive an email and you need to respond “right now”. Now, if this is an emergency or a deadline, I have zero problem popping out of a meeting, but usually the “right now” offender is not having an emergency. This situation usually consists of a broken nail, a complete meltdown over an issue that simply does not exist or something they want “right now”, but in fact do not need for their conference for another two weeks. I try my hardest to vet out the “right now” peeps and if I run into this case I learned how to say no back in 2008.
