An e-mail is more polite

In 2002 I started working for the first time in a large organization. About that time the use of e-mails in the workplace was making its first steps.

One morning I had to contact an associate and I was thinking what would be the most appropriate time to call him. Then Alex, a colleague, suggested: “Don’t call him, better send him an e-mail. Phone calls are more aggressive. On the other hand, he will see the e-mail, he will think about it with calm and he will reply when he wants. Therefore, the exchange becomes automatically politer”.

Since then emails and the internet have become an integral part of modern business culture. A recent study found that the average worker spends 2.5 hours daily checking e-mail, approximately 17% more than the previous year. Another interesting finding is that 28% of the workers between the ages of 25 and 35 check their emails while having a meal.

However, the same study focused on a new trend in professional e-mails, phrases that are now widely used to remind someone to reply to already received e-mails. One of the most irksome is “Not sure if you saw my last e-mail”.

Off course he did, he simply does not want to reply just yet. Such passive-aggressive messages negate one of the main features of e-mail, which is to give time to the interlocutor to reply when he wishes. The number of workers that prefer receiving e-mails is almost double of those that prefer the telephone.

It is almost twenty years since I shared the same office with Alex and I believe that there has not been a single day at work that I don’t think of his words. An e-mail is more polite.