5 times you should never send an email

If you experience any of these emotions when you have to send an email, step away from the send button. That email can wait until later.

Ragan Insider Premium Content
Ragan Insider Content

For instance, you cannot control how people will receive your message, what mood they will be in when they read it, how quickly they will respond to it, or why they might forward it to their friends—or even the media.

Frankly, the only factor you can control with emails is whether or not to hit the send button.

Your emotions are the best way to decide what to do. If you can describe yourself as “feeling _____” (fill in one of the emotions below), then slowly count to 10, take a walk, or do something other than send that email.

1. Angry

Whether you’re mad at the intended recipient or someone else, your negative emotions will come through loud and clear with your word choice, phrasing, sentence structure and tone.

If you think your tone might be negative, use a unique service called Tone Check. This program analyzes your word choice and shows you how to edit your emails to communicate a positive tone.

2. Impatient

Say you’ve run out of patience with someone and need their report. You can write “Send me the report now!!!!” which will likely get either no response or more delays.

To read the full story, log in.
Become a Ragan Insider member to read this article and all other archived content.
Sign up today

Already a member? Log in here.
Learn more about Ragan Insider.