One entrepreneur tells the story of a deal gone bad and of deteriorating email signatures:

As negotiations started to break down, the sign-offs started to get decidedly shorter and cooler,” Mr. Troutwine recalled. “In the beginning it was like, ‘I look forward to speaking with you soon’ and ‘Warmest regards,’ and by the end it was just ‘Best.’

The article suggests that the more fluid medium of email makes senders and recipients equally unsure how to read the signs. At sign-off that becomes crucial:

Those final few words above your name are where relationships and hierarchies are established, and where what is written in the body of the message can be clarified or undermined.

One danger is that people will always interpret what you write differently. The entrepreneur above thought “Best” a brush-off. On the other hand:

I use ‘Best’ for all of my professional e-mails,” said Kelly Brady, a perky publicist in New York. “It’s friendly, quick and to the point.”

(Aren’t stereotypes great?)

It’s possible to spend a lot of time thinking about this:

Because people read so much into a sign-off, said Richard Kirshenbaum, chief creative officer of the advertising firm Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners, he has thought deeply about his preferred closing to professional correspondence, “Warmly, RK.” He did not want something too emotional, like “Love,” or too formal, like “Sincerely.” “ ‘Warmly’ fell comfortably in between,” he said. “I want to convey a sense of warmth and passion, but also be appropriate.”

Or, like me, to spend too little. Knowing how fast I am going myself to get through my inbox, I tend not to read too much into a brief sign-off from someone else. No doubt, I am missing all the important signs.

Like all things email-etiquette related, balance seems the best target.

The one with the carefully-crafted and appropriate words can close the deal / get the job done / comfort the sobbing student / palm off the essay marking to some gullible sucker / [insert your own professionally-appropriate career goal here]. But the one who spends too much time thinking about it or over-interpreting email sign-offs gets nothing done.

Whatever you decide, you can’t dodge the issue by chosing nothing:

Many e-mail users don’t bother with a sign-off, and Letitia Baldridge, the manners expert, finds that annoying. “It’s so abrupt,” she said, “and it’s very unfriendly. We need grace in our lives, and I’m not talking about heavenly grace. I’m talking about human grace. We should try and be warm and friendly.”

The punchline belongs to Ms Mitchell who believes, among other things, that “good corporate governance is simply good manners”:

“While on the one hand e-mail encourages people to write, on the other hand it discourages people to write thoughtfully.”

[Much more on email etiquette in previous Hawk Wings posts.]etiquette, email in general, manners, not apple mailSimilar Posts:

• Email: Keeping it simple
• Use your iChat certificate to sign Mail.app emails
• Names for the @ sign
• New plugin brings star signs, age, iCal link to Address Book
• Hawk Wings Easter Message

Avoid other causes of communication breakdown:

• Guy Kawasaki’s 12 tips for better emailing
• How email fuels miscommunication
• Merlin Mann on working smarter and faster
• A brief guide to email style and manners
• The Ten Commandments of email according to Intel

email, communication, miscommunication, those who have ears let them ear, Easter, humour, humor, productivity, etiquette, apple mail, mail.appSimilar Posts:

• Email: Keeping it simple
• Ten Commandments of Email according to Intel
• How email fuels miscommunication
• British survey of online etiquette
• Belated Big Beautiful Blogless Beach Break

The survey of over 1,468 (53% male / 47% female) office workers contains few surprises, although it is interesting to compare the results with similar US studies on email use and gender and email productivity.

Email is the electronic medium of choice. The report found that “more people said they were addicted to email in the workplace than any other medium, with 78% of respondents claiming they couldn’t live without it.”

However, it seems email is not always being used for work-related purposes. UK offices are full of what the report describes as “bad behaviour”:

Professionals aren’t only using email to make corporate deals. 40% use the tool for gossip, 54% for socialising, and 60% for dealing with issues regarding their relationships with coworkers. Men are more likely than women to use email for socialising, whereas women are more likely to use it for gossiping.

The study asked respondents how long they needed to wait for a reply to an email before considering the recipient of the original email rude:

The survey also found that younger respondents were more adventurous in their communication channels than older ones, and males more than females.

In British offices, traditional communication methods remain important: “Leaving aside email for the moment, a high number of respondents rely more heavily on traditional methods of communications…. 29% use both fax and letter each day – although this figure rises the older the respondent.”

Finally the report identified three stereotypes in British workplaces. It’s always fun to think about which category your fellow workers fall in, so here they are:

The OAT (Old Age Technologist)
OATs are not necessarily old in age, but have more dated attitudes towards new communication technologies. OATs realise new technologies are becoming more prevalent in the workplace, but they’re dealing with this change by maintaining their tried and tested ways of communication. OATs are not sure how or why people have taken so readily to ‘new age’ communications tools.

The ESBO (Easily Sociable Behaviour Online)
Very comfortable when using modern communications, ESBOs are as happy text messaging their boss as IM’ing a client or taking part in a video conference. The ESBO zooms through the workday checking emails upwards of 300 times. Some ESBOs love the phone, some hate it, but the critical matter is that IM, text messaging and email have become more important than even their desks.

The StoIC (Slow to Implement Change)
The SToIC follows etiquette rules and doesn’t stray from accepted comfort zones. If there isn’t a generally accepted way of using a new technology the SToIC will avoid it altogether. The SToIC is still using the fax on a regular basis and would rarely consider writing a text message for work purposes.

If you are not sure which one you are, you can take an online survey to find out.

The findings of the report are available online in PDF form as an executive summary .email, productivity, etiquette, IM, SMS, communicationSimilar Posts:

• Where did the day go?
• UK Survey proves “death of email” premature
• Hawk Wings Easter Message
• A third of bloggers consider themselves journalists
• How men and women use email differently