One of the toughest lessons for new employees to figure out is the face-to- face culture that exists at the new office. Some companies take a rather casual approach and encourage freedom of expression, even if this entails taking a superior to task. Other companies follow more traditional rules, requiring a fair amount of tact and discretion in face-to-face communication. Some comments, such as sexual harrassment, are taboo in every company.

These days, learning the email culture can be just as complicated as learning the face-to-face culture. Yet, like face-to-face communication, every company follows certain basic rules. Since email is relatively new to us, these rules are not as obvious as face-to-face rules. Some of these unwritten rules can get new employees in trouble, especially when making a good first impression is so important. We at ComputerUser want to help you avoid that bad first impression and follow the email etiquette that every company expects. It's up to you to discover the subtle rules unique to your new company's email culture.

Like face-to-face communication, email is only appropriate at certain times. In the business world, email is a glorified memo that can be quickly distributed to several sources while saving paper. In many ways, it can also act like a voice message system. But most importantly, email will never replace face-to- face, transactional communication.

Most of the problems associated with email stem from the medium itself. Email is a flat medium, in that only the written words are communicated. Unlike face- to-face communication, email does not carry tone or nonverbal cues. The confusion surrounding email is two- fold, because both the originator and receiver can botch the communication. For example, blunt or matter of fact email is often misinterpreted as negative, even though the originator’s intentions are honorable. Also, since email is a written medium, the writing skill of the sender plays a role. If the sender is not skilled enough to communicate his or her intentions in writing, misinterpretation is likely.

Email should be used to inform and not to converse. It can never replace transactional communication, which involves the exchange of information between two or more sources verbally. I have heard of examples where employees will send email messages to four of their coworkers all of which are in the same room to setup a lunch time. "I was thinking about lunch in the cafeteria at 12:30. How does that sound?" That one email message initiates a massive response. In the unlikely event of an immediate consensus, the originator would receive at least four return messages. If there was one disagreement, that number would probably double. Surely this employee should have stood up and made an announcement. The business world is too busy for wasteful email.

And since the business world is so busy, never use email for purposes which require immediate attention. Most busy business people read their email at the beginning or end of their day. Clearly this is why we have telephones. Telephones offer quick, transactional responses.

Also, before you email the message, evaluate whether or not the message should be sent as email. Before sending email, I often reread it and consider its purpose. I ask myself if the email’s purpose conforms to the medium. We often use email inappropriately and the use of a different medium would be more effective. Sometimes the request for information could be expedited or better handled via the telephone, for example.

Just as your work is a reflection of yourself, so is your email. Countless email messages are sent without simple proofreading. Before you send your next email message, reread it for grammar, spelling, punctuation. Most popular email applications, such as Novel GroupWise and Lotus Notes, have spellchecking capabilities. If your email application does not spellcheck, write the message in your word processor. Spellcheck the document and then copy-and-paste it into your emailer. Reread the document for clarity too. When we write email in a business environment, we are often interrupted or have other things on our minds. This leads to those incomplete and scatterbrained sentences.

Never use email to communicate big or bad news. These should be done in the traditional face-to-face manner. For example, some managers may desire sending termination notices to their employees via email, but clearly this would be a misuse of email. Since email is a "faceless" medium, people often misuse its power. All too often, email users send negative criticism i.e. flaming. Yet we have not pinpointed why flaming occurs. The empowerment of technology contributes to some users need to flame others. Others flame because of email’s partial anonymity.

"Most researchers today believe that flaming is context dependent; that is, it depends on the circumstances of the communication; the age, gender, and other demographic features of the user; and the purpose of the communication." Says Dr.Laura Gurak, Professor of Scientific and Technical Communication at the University of Minnesota and author of Persuasion and Privacy in Cyberspace. Keeping all of this in mind, remember that intentional flaming is a destructive use of email, especially in large forums or listservs.

Companies often monitor, capture, and store their employees’ email; therefore, never send sensitive information via email. Email is about as confidential as standing up in your cubicle and shouting across the office. Don’t believe it? A July 19th, 1997 Wall Street Journal article describes a situation between Andersen Consulting and UOP now a joint venture of AlliedSignal Inc. and Union Carbide Corp ,where Andersen is being sued for $100 million for breach of contract and fraud. Although animosity between client and consultant is not unusual, the email left behind by Anderson Consulting employees will be used by its clients in court. According to the Wall Street Journal, the email messages reveal arguments between Anderson employees, Anderson and UOP employees, and in some instances, incompetence of Anderson employees. Play it safe and assume that your email is being read by others either through monitoring or forwarding.

Forwarding email is sometimes an ethical decision. Before forwarding someone’s email, think about the ramifications. If the email contains something sensitive or derogatory and you decide to forward the email, it may appear that you condone this type of behavior. My policy is that if I even have to think about the ethical ramifications, I opt not to forward the email.

Most would agree that junk mail via the USPS is bothersome, and the same goes for junk email. Email users frown on unsolicited marketing and sales information, and they often view it as an invasion of privacy. Yes, it is easy enough to delete unwanted email, but it is easy to hang up the phone too, and yet I have never heard of anyone who liked telemarketers calling during diner time. Another growing trend is the cute yet annoying pyramid letters, which threatens bad luck unless you forward it to ‘x’ amount of people. Resist the superstitious urge to participate in this type of email abuse.

Typical email applications can append signatures to the end of an outgoing email. These days signatures are quite diverse, but it seems that the appropriateness of your signature depends on your company. Gurak suggests that "a high-tech software company might like its employees to have funky, fun, playful signatures, and a more conservative, traditional business might prefer something straightforward like name, rank, and serial number." If no precedent has been set in your company, the following components are appropriate in any business setting: full name and title, company name, phone and optional fax number, and appropriate web addresses. Signatures that included return email addresses used to be common, but with the advancement of email applications and their "smart" address books, this is rarely done. However, if you are dealing with inexperienced email users, it still may be a good idea to include your reply address in your signature.

Have you ever seen funny looking characters in email that looks like a tipped over smiling face? These characters, often referred to as smilies, are actually called emoticons, which is a combination of "emotion" and "icons." As mentioned, one of the problems with email is the lack of emotional cues, but emoticons allow writers to express emotion in a flat medium. Although effective, emoticons are probably not appropriate in a business setting unless a precedent has been set, because they will only confuse your readers. On the other hand, Gurak makes a strong argument for the use of emoticons in a business environment. "The goal in business communication is to be clear and accurate, and if a smiley face helps to convey a person's true meaning, this would seem to be a good thing."

To round out The Ultimate Guide to Netiquette, try to make the email as aesthetically pleasing as possible. For example, few email letters are more difficult to read than the ones that are typed in full- caps. Caps increase the difficulty of reading, because each letter is shaped the same and the human eye requires relief. Upper and lower case letters provide that relief. The use of all-caps also creates tone. It is the online equivalent of shouting, and even if your intention is to shout, it would probably best be done in person.

When replying or forwarding messages, try to delete as much header information without losing track of who sent which section. Some email users, especially new ones, have difficulty wading through the extra text. And if you plan to print these messages, it will conserve paper.

Lastly, try to format the email as best as your email application allows. Surely you have seen those emails where each paragraph is sized differently and some are broken in unusual areas. Those often occur because the originator forgot to remove extra carriage returns or wrote the message in an application that handles more than 80 characters horizontally. This extra effort will not only encourage people to actually read your email, but it the aesthetically pleasing document will assist in its interpretation.

This should help you avoid that inadvertant bad first impression due to inappropriate email. If you are unsure of how email is handled in your company, check with their longtime users. Pay close attention to the email culture at your new job before sending email laden with emoticons, slang, and flowery signatures. When in doubt, use other media such as phone, paper, and face-to-face communication.