These 10 Annoying Email Habits Alienate Your Co-Workers. Are You Guilty?
You might want to rethink that smiley face.
Key Takeaways
- An estimated 333 billion emails were sent and received globally in 2022.
- EmailTooltester conducted a survey to learn more about “the new workplace rules for communicating.”
You might want to double-check your next work email before you hit “send.”
Turns out, that benevolent smiley face or extra exclamation mark you opted to include might not have the intended effect — and could be driving your colleagues insane.
The number of emails sent and received globally has increased each year since 2017, reaching an estimated 333 billion in 2022, per .
That’s a lot of opportunities for miscommunication if you’re not up to date on email etiquette — especially in the workplace.
Related: 5 Rude Emails You Send Every Day
Email marketing review platform conducted a to learn more about “the new workplace rules for communicating,” particularly regarding office email dos and don’ts.
The findings reveal some eye-opening stats about email faux pas, like the fact that 16.8% of people say they’ve “e-snitched,” or forwarded an email chain to get a colleague in trouble, and 23.8% of workers admit to “email fraud,” or scheduling a work email to make it look like they’re working earlier or later.
But what about some of the inadvertent mistakes you might make when firing off that email to a boss or co-worker? EmailTooltester’s survey, which polled more than 1,000 Americans, discovered which email missteps aggravate people the most.
Related: 5 Ways to Respond to Negative, Evil Emails
Here are the top 10:
1. Names being misspelled – 24.4% of respondents get annoyed by this
2. Smiley faces or emojis – 21.6%
3. Overly familiar pet names such as “babe” or “doll” – 20.5%
4. Memes (GIFs or images) – 18.0%
5. Overuse of exclamation marks – 17.3%
6. Managers being CC’d or BCC’d in – 16.9%
7. Unpersonalized greetings such as “What’s up” – 15.7%
8. Not using “hello” or “hi” at the start – 13.1%
9. Unnecessary puns – 13.1%
10. Not signing off or signing off with a singular letter – 9.5%
Related: Your Email Might Be Preventing You From Being a Better Boss
Key Takeaways
- An estimated 333 billion emails were sent and received globally in 2022.
- EmailTooltester conducted a survey to learn more about “the new workplace rules for communicating.”
You might want to double-check your next work email before you hit “send.”
Turns out, that benevolent smiley face or extra exclamation mark you opted to include might not have the intended effect — and could be driving your colleagues insane.
The number of emails sent and received globally has increased each year since 2017, reaching an estimated 333 billion in 2022, per .
