I keep wondering if it is even possible for me to get even more email than I already do--and I don't even have a Blackberry, Trio or some other device that lets anyone from my boss to my doctor reach me whether I am commuting, sleeping or on the can.
So, let's scope out the current situation..I have 2 personal email accounts, 2 work email accounts plus 3 other general inbox accounts, and an email account I set up for my parents which I still have to check for them from time to time. When I come into work after the weekend, I have around 100-150 emails which is second only to my other work account at 200 emails from taking a much needed computer break on Sat and Sun.
Of course, like everyone else I tolerate it, slowly filing things I may need "just in case" and getting back to people (often when it would have been just as easy to pick up a phone or god forbid get off my ass and walk across the hall to answer a quick question from a colleague). 'Course there are many amazing things about email like the fact that I can "email" in sick without having to fake nasal congestion on the phone, so what is my gripe? A couple things.
1. The dreaded "reply-to" violator--this is the person on that long email address list who decides it necessary to acknowledge that they will be at a meeting or simply writes "thanks!" to the sender and insists on letting every poor soul on the original email know these inconsequential details by hitting the "reply-to" haphazardly.
2. The double poster--you always know this person because the minute you open your email, you will see their name like 5 times in a row, often with the subject line--Re: oops. This is because they forgot the attachment, the date of a meeting, the time, etc. and keep sending clarification after clarification trying to correct their first sorry email. I always find this particularly amusing if they say "i forgot the attachment last time, sorry. Here it is" and yet it still only a 3 KB message...go figure.
There are MANY more ways I could end this rant (i.e. more email offender caricatures like that guy who writes in short hand and caps and expects you to decipher what the hell he is saying) but instead I will close with a humorous email "signature" story. Email signatures seem to get longer and fancier with lists of phone numbers, emails, websites but never before I had seen someone list their degrees PLUS where the degrees were from--until the other day. The end of the email went something like this:
Sincerely, John Smith B.S. (Stanford), J.D. (Harvard), PhD (Oxford)
Now, I am not saying to be overly modest about your accomplishments but come on, how self-promoting can you be...alas, from now on I will sign mine with the following:
Sincerely, Melissa Bailey, B.S. (Northeastern U.), a bunch of classes (UMass), microbiology (Mass Bay Community), M.S. (Tufts), Ph.D. (painfully in progress).
