The Politics of Office Email

He is a very brilliant young man. Very smart, very good. He has a frail look, but what he lacks in frame, he more than makes up for it in mouth. When he talks, you listen, most times not because of the content of his talk (which is usually deep in itself), but because of the eloquence that betrays his stature. Welcome to the world of Tunde (not real name), a chartered accountant with a top company in Nigeria.

Not being in the same subsidiary, even though both of us were accountants within the group, I only came across Tunde at chance meetings inside the elevators, who you can’t but notice because of his exceptionally slim stature. But hearing him speak at a group retreat we had, I came to know the stuff he was made of. He was loaded.

One day, I heard from a colleague that Tunde had been sent packing. Reason: while relieving his boss who was on vacation, he sent out an email to a senior executive asking for the ‘why’ of a confidential situation! He was fired!

Relieving a manager is a very good thing; in fact, it is an endorsement of your capability. It is also a positive indicator that you may be considered for the position if your boss eventually moves on. But my no-holds-barred friend forgot to learn the communication etiquette of his temporary role. He lost not only the role, but his job. That is what can happen when you don’t think twice before clicking the ‘send’ button after composing those fine words.

Email can actually make or mar a person at work. A friend of mine that got job in one of the South-African banks in Nigeria shortly after we graduated became his boss’ favourite subordinate because of the way he writes, especially emails. But while most emails have neutral effect on your standing in your organization, most of the ones that affect your standing have negative effect.

Let me start from myself. Writing is one of my strongest points, so I utilize it very well. Also, being very active in Nigerian discussion forums (Nairaland and co), I have sub-consciously become used to couching not-too-nice statements in fine words, leaving the recipient to discern. Unknown to me, this was gradually encroaching my official communication. It landed me into mild issue a couple of times, when I sent nasty emails to colleagues. Once, a colleague reported me to our line manager who was on leave when I sent a nasty response to her email on retirement of cash advance. Women and emotion, she almost wept. We never got perfectly along for the rest of my years in that organization since that email, even though I apologized at the behest of our boss, and in fairness, the email was too strong-worded. If our boss wasn’t the level-headed one, it may have led to firmer eventuality. That is what happens when you send email when your adrenaline is high. I was a ‘terror’ in emails compositions that many colleagues practically feared me.

Apart from the tone of the email, knowing when to use ‘reply’ or ‘reply all’ or selectively leave out some people in chain mails is another very critical part of the politics of email. As a newbie in one company five years ago, I once replied a chain mail that was sent to me with ‘reply all’ and made a comment to the effect that ‘I will get it (the task at hand) done soon’. I didn’t know the positions of people that were in the chain email and their temperament. It almost got me into trouble when one very top level officer in the copy of the email replied with ‘when will your soon be soon’. My boss, also in copy and after reading the email, had to call me and warn me on the politics of email – that in such emails, I should have simply used ‘reply’ and not ‘reply all’ or delete out people that I know don’t have patience in my response. From that day till now, I have always been careful in choosing who to put in email, when to reply and when to reply all. You can lose your job for things as simple as clicking ‘reply all’ when you should have chosen ‘reply’.

Another very important thing in the politics of email is acknowledgement. I know someone that came from a company, where, as a matter of company policy, every email must be acknowledged received. She joined a new company and realized that whenever she sent email to some people, they will neither nor act on it. Some people see acknowledgement of email as commitment so they dodge it, or pretend as if they didn’t see it, even if they have plan to work on it. These are parts of office politics, which you should master.

When I joined one company, my work required looking at some other people’s works and identifying errors, if any, and correcting them. Still new in that company, I was sending emails to pass across the errors and copying the affected colleagues’ bosses. I never knew my colleagues were not happy with that. One day, I also made what looked like an error in my corrective email, and you can only imagine how of them fired back, copying everybody, including my own boss, too. You see retaliation written all over the email. It was then I gave my approach a second thought and realized I was making enemies for myself in the company. I later stopped copying their bosses. Later, I decided to just be walking to their desks and discuss the errors with them, and only following up with light emails just for records purpose. It worked fine. Coupled with my very open and jovial nature (never mind my tendency for sending strong emails), it was only a matter of time before I become one of the loved-by-all staff in the department. Email can make you people’s enemy, but you can redeem yourself with proper remedial strategy.

Email writing in office no doubt goes beyond punching the keyboard or keypad alone, there is more to it. You can make or destroy your career with it. You need to learn the art.

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