By Vicki Wrona, PMP:

We all have pet peeves — those things that others (or possibly you) do that drive you crazy. I’ll start with some of mine with regard to emails. I am not disclosing this to rant, but instead in an attempt for all of us to be more aware and effective in our communications.

1. No contact info. The first is not including contact information at the bottom of a business email. When I need to respond to that message, email is not always the most appropriate response. When that is the case, if contact info is not supplied at the bottom of an email, it takes time to gather the necessary information to respond or to facilitate introductions. It doesn’t take long, but is an unnecessary inconvenience, especially when they are asking for my help.

I am assuming that they want me to follow up on what they sent in the email, so why not put their contact info in there? Could it be that they are more concerned with getting an email out quickly rather than completely? Could it be that they did not notice anything was amiss? I have requested that those who work with me include contact information at the bottom of each email, and have coached other employees to do the same. This is so easily done by setting up an automatic signature that I am amazed that more people do not do this.

2. Not including the original request or note. Another pet peeve is when someone responds to your email and does not include the original attachment. This is especially annoying when their answer is not descriptive, such as “I agree, we’ll move forward with that approach” or “I’m not sure, what do you mean?” We are all juggling many things, and the information in that prior email may or may not be fresh in our minds. Again, it may not be intentional, but it can come across as inconsiderate. I will admit that sometimes emails can get too long with many messages attached and it may be appropriate to shorten the note due to size, but when you do that, be sure to include the last message or two.

3. One-word replies. The last item I will bring up here is the one word replies. I had a boss who, in the interest of being efficient and saving herself time, would respond to many messages with one word, such as ‘yes’, or ‘ok’, or if she was in a generous mood, two words such as ‘I agree’. She wouldn’t attach the original note, and often the original note had multiple requests. In that case, what was she agreeing to? What did the yes or no refer to? Nobody knew. But she was efficient….or so she thought until the group interpreted her answer incorrectly and we had to perform rework.

What are your email pet peeves? Maybe if we share our frustrations, we can provide food for thought and, more importantly, for more appropriate behavior by others….and ourselves.

7 replies
  1. Joy Wilson
    Joy Wilson says:

    It helps when emails are concise and spaced out or bullet style, rather than paragraphs of text with 5-10 unnecessary words per sentence.

    Don’t tell me how to build a watch when all I’m asking for is the current time

  2. Jimme Quinn Ross
    Jimme Quinn Ross says:

    Misspelling. Incorrect use of there, their, and they’re. Lack of capital letters. TXT language such as LOL, ru, idk, and so forth.

  3. Grace Rivera
    Grace Rivera says:

    Journalism: Don’t bury the lead.

    Please lead emails with the main point and tell me who this applies to. I get copied on a ton of things. So don’t bury the true intent at the end or the middle.

    Provide a section with more details for those who need them.

  4. David Gower
    David Gower says:

    These are my top ten email pet peeves. Some have already been covered, but I needed ten to make the list complete. 🙂

    10. Misspellings

    9. Incorrect grammar

    8. Too many words to get the point across. Are these people getting paid by the word in the emails they write?

    7. No signature line, POC info(Yes, include it on replies).

    6. Rambling on and on with out adding any real value to to the conversation.

    5. Not reading the whole email before they respond, then asking a question which was really answered in the email they just replied to.

    4. Replying “inline” (Which I guess may be fine if you can see the different color font they used) It is just plain annoying when you cannot.

    3. Overtaxing the English language, i.e. using a $5.00 word when a .25 word would do just fine. We all know how smart the author is. (by the way, does replying to a blog post count?)

    2. Overuse of acronyms like BLUF (Bottom-line Up Front), just say what the bottom line is and get on with it. (see #3)

    And the number 1 most annoying email pet peeve I have is:

    Use or at least over use of “REPLY ALL”. Really that button should be removed, or at least severely limited or taxed, that is a tax I would support.

    • vwrona
      vwrona says:

      Dave – I love your list! The item I most resonate with is your #1 peeve of all – the “Reply to All” button! I agree that it should be limited.

  5. Chris Stiles
    Chris Stiles says:

    Multiple iterations of Q&A, “Please see my response below in blue” (or green, or orange … whatever color hasn’t been used yet!).

    Easy solution is to copy/paste any questions asked into your response, and reply/answer from there. If multiple iterations of Q&A are required, maybe is meeting is in order.

    • vwrona
      vwrona says:

      Chris – hmmmm, I’m guilty of replying inline in a different color. 🙁 But I stop the email madness when there are multiple iterations of comments. You are right about holding a meeting or quick call at that point. Thanks for sharing.

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