Offices lack netiquette says Crone Corkill

With the handwritten letter having almost faded into obscurity, email is a vital tool for business communication. However according to a recent snapshot survey by specialist office support recruiter Crone Corkill, many business-based web users could benefit from some education in ënetiquette.í

The survey revealed how 52% of secretaries and PAs believe that email has made business communication less formal and consequently less professional. One PA explained ìI donít appreciate getting kisses in an email from someone I have never metî, while another said ìI find it strange when somebody I donít know starts the email with ëhií.î The survey also found that just over a third (34%) of respondents felt that the informal nature of e-mail had led to a lowering of standards in both punctuation and spelling.

Commenting on the results, Tracy Durrant, Managing Director of Crone Corkill, said: ìThere is a fine line between being friendly and polite and being too informal. Usually, the individual can judge the situation well enough to know how to communicate effectively but being too informal can give a less than professional image.î

15% of the PAs questioned knew of incidents where emails had fallen into the wrong hands. ìOnce you have clicked the send button there little to no chance of turning backî warns Durrant. ìEnsure that the email is appropriate and that you are sending it to the right person and be aware that your emails may be read by those other than the recipient. Any badly worded or offensive correspondence not only reflects badly on you but also your company.î

The top five ënetiquetteí complaints from respondents were:

- Informality
- Bad spelling and punctuation
- Flagging routine e-mail as urgent
- Omitting to put anything in the e-mail subject header
- Receiving e-mails with long threads of previous correspondence