Sunday, September 17, 2006

Dealing With Issues Over Email

I personally find it irritating trying to address important or sensitive issues over email. There's just too much opportunity to misinterpret or miscommunicate, resulting in unnecessary anxiety or drama. What about scheduling an impromptu meeting? Or calling the person? If you can't do either of them, is it something that can wait until the morning?

Email is also asynchronous - it's an erratic back-and-forth, not a realtime conversation, which just makes it that much more frustrating than a phone call to communicate about a complex situation.

Use common sense - if you have feedback for someone, or need to debate an issue - how would you want to receive it?

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