AT WORK
Time-wasting e-mails should lead us not to do unto others

By Anita Bruzzese
Gannett News Service

English author George Eliot once said, "Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving in words evidence of the fact."

For all of you receiving tons of useless e-mail every day, there's only one thing to add: "Amen."

Are people sick of worthless e-mail clogging their electronic mailboxes every day? You bet.

They're so sick of it, in fact, that Christina Cavanagh says she's heard suggestions that computers be equipped with an automatic "return to sender" button for unwanted missives, or banish from e-mail anyone who responds with a "thank you for the thank-you" until they promise never to do it again.

Cavanagh, a professor of management communications at the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario, says the biggest problem is that people receive no training on how or when to use e-mail at work. The result?

A flood of "cc's" to most of the Western Hemisphere; long, rambling messages that leave the reader dazed and confused; and grammatical and spelling errors that make even the brightest professional look like a dimwit.

"E-mail has brought back the art of written communication," Cavanagh says. "Unfortunately, it shows how badly we write."

It also shows how poorly we communicate. When a simple walk down a hallway to deliver a message would work, we e-mail instead. When we want to share ideas with someone, we e-mail, often failing clearly to communicate our true intentions. When we really don't need to say anything, we e-mail.

So let's all lift our overactive fingers from the keyboard for a moment and consider some e-mail rules that our mothers never knew to teach us:

• Stop the intuition spam. "This is when you send someone something because you loved it and thought they would, too," Cavanagh says. "Or it can be that someone is copying you on everything. Sit down with them and casually chat about how you're trying to cut down on your e-mail, and you'd like only certain things sent your way."
• Speak up. Don't use e-mail when you need to have a conversation — it will make the task too laborious. When you need to bounce ideas back and forth, e-mail not only is inefficient, but could lead to a less favorable outcome — namely, the delete button.
• Structure messages properly. Study newspaper headlines for ideas on how to communicate your message in the subject line. Use active words such as "meeting on Jan. 15 canceled." Indicate in the first line of your message why you're sending it, such as a decision is needed or a request is being made.

Cavanagh says the average person uses about two hours a day to manage 25 unread e-mail messages.

With many of us returning from a weekend to face possibly two or three times that amount, we're all pretty desperate for some relief.

Until we get better at handling our e-mail obsession, Cavanagh suggests some ways to keep it under control, including keeping a trigger finger on the delete button for messages that do not directly affect us.

Use folders to file messages properly so you can read them later.

Quickly scan subject lines to prioritize, and don't be shy about getting organizations to remove you from their e-mail lists.

Finally, practice what you preach. Be a responsible e-mailer.

Keep your message brief, use e-mail only when a phone call or personal conversation isn't possible, and check grammar and spelling before sending.