I was at my public library last week, when I noticed a book called "Send - the essential guide to email for office and home." I thought to myself, eh, why not get it? After all it seemed like light reading, and like something that I would enjoy. I am glad I borrowed this book from the library, because not only did it give me insight into some aspects of email (and other non-verbal, electronic forms of communication) that I had not stopped to consider (even though they were in my subconscious...somewhere), but it also re-affirmed things I either knew to be true, or my gut was telling me were true. Here are a couple of things I learned or were re-affirmed:

1. At a previous workplace - my last few days in fact, we had a new director. His first decree was to give everyone a blackberry, because voice communication was inefficient, email will speed things up (i.e. make things more efficient). At the time, both I am my colleagues disagreed (and still do). Voice communication is not inefficient, email is. If you take your time to craft a well worded, properly spelled email that does indeed convey what you want to convey, you will spend more time than actually talking to someone. Email's perceived speed is based on the fact that you can type five words, click send, and believe that the recipient knows what you are talking about. I've had many of these emails where I needed to either ask for clarification emails, and there have been many times I had to call the sender to ask what they meant in their email!

2. The cover you own behind emails - also known as CC everyone (or even worse, put everyone in the TO line). Again, in a previous work environment, most emails were relevant to my work. They were emails from my boss, colleagues and vendors. There were of course a few 'ha ha' emails and a few 'delete this' rumor emails (both no-nos in send), but the great majority were relevant. At a more recent work environment, there are a lot of CYOA (cover your own behind) emails, where people send the email TO everyone at the work-site, even if they do not need the information. This has contributed to many emails just being tossed without looking at the information, which in the end causes a lot of confusion and disorganization. I've hated CYOA emails, and I tried resisting the CYOA type of email, but unfortunately it is being imposed on me...

All things considered, this is a good book to read whether you are a rank-and-file employee, or a manager (somewhere in the managerial food chain).