These 10 Annoying Email Habits Alienate Your Co-Workers. Are You Guilty? You might want to rethink that smiley face.
By Amanda Breen
Key Takeaways
- An estimated 333 billion emails were sent and received globally in 2022.
- EmailTooltester conducted a survey to learn more about "the new workplace rules for communicating."
You might want to double-check your next work email before you hit "send."
Turns out, that benevolent smiley face or extra exclamation mark you opted to include might not have the intended effect — and could be driving your colleagues insane.
The number of emails sent and received globally has increased each year since 2017, reaching an estimated 333 billion in 2022, per Statista.
That's a lot of opportunities for miscommunication if you're not up to date on email etiquette — especially in the workplace.
Related: 5 Rude Emails You Send Every Day
Email marketing review platform EmailTooltester conducted a survey to learn more about "the new workplace rules for communicating," particularly regarding office email dos and don'ts.
The findings reveal some eye-opening stats about email faux pas, like the fact that 16.8% of people say they've "e-snitched," or forwarded an email chain to get a colleague in trouble, and 23.8% of workers admit to "email fraud," or scheduling a work email to make it look like they're working earlier or later.
But what about some of the inadvertent mistakes you might make when firing off that email to a boss or co-worker? EmailTooltester's survey, which polled more than 1,000 Americans, discovered which email missteps aggravate people the most.
Related: 5 Ways to Respond to Negative, Evil Emails
Here are the top 10:
1. Names being misspelled – 24.4% of respondents get annoyed by this
2. Smiley faces or emojis – 21.6%
3. Overly familiar pet names such as "babe" or "doll" – 20.5%
4. Memes (GIFs or images) – 18.0%
5. Overuse of exclamation marks – 17.3%
6. Managers being CC'd or BCC'd in – 16.9%
7. Unpersonalized greetings such as "What's up" – 15.7%
8. Not using "hello" or "hi" at the start – 13.1%
9. Unnecessary puns – 13.1%
10. Not signing off or signing off with a singular letter – 9.5%
Related: Your Email Might Be Preventing You From Being a Better Boss
