9 Tips to Improve Your Email Communication With Coworkers

Unless your office has gone back to carrier pigeons and pneumatic tubes carrying memos, email is the king when it comes to office communications. Those “new message” dings and badges follow us everywhere these days. That said, familiarity doesn’t necessarily mean there aren’t some best practices we should all follow. Here are 9 tips to remember as you craft your 50^th email of the day.

1. Fast response =/= good response

2. No one gets points for being That Guy who corrects others’ grammar.

3. Your snarky response: just don’t send it.

4. Don’t link to your personal blog in your signature.

5. If you absolutely must trash-talk about someone else on the email chain, ALWAYS double-check the “reply all” setting.

6. There is such a thing as TOO formal in a work email.

7. Don’t hit “send” while you’re still angry.

8. Don’t be the person who drops by to discuss the email you just sent.

9. At some point, your email server will push you to the brink of a nervous breakdown.