5 emails you should never send

It happens to the best of us: We send an email when we probably shouldn’t.

It happened to me the other day. I was going to send an email to someone, and right before I hit “send,” something told me to stop.

Sometimes an email is inappropriate for the message you want to send, and other times it’s just superfluous.

In an article for Open Forum, Penelope Trunk outlines the five types of emails you should never send. No matter how many years you’ve been in the working world or how often you send emails, it’s a good idea to brush up on etiquette every now and then.

Here are the five types of emails you should never send:

1. “You screwed up” emails: Trunk says this is almost always a mistake. If you need to tell someone he did something wrong, do it in person, she says. You will be able to gauge his reaction and more appropriately explain what went wrong. He also won’t have a constant reminder of his mistake sitting in his inbox.