I was sent a non-disclosure agreement to sign for a consulting gig. The name on the document was not my own (Cryptic), but some other name that was not even vaguely similar to mine (Snaggleton). I sent the bossman an email with something along the lines of “I don’t think it would be prudent for me to sign this agreement; my name is not Snaggleton.”
The response: “Be sure to send me your mailing address so I can put it on the agreement.”
…how does my address have any relevance to the fact that I am Cryptic and not Snaggleton?
People think that when they write something in email, it being written down and the ability to refer back to it later will serve them well. It doesn’t always happen that way.
If it’s important, pick up the phone so you have someones undivided attention, then follow up with an email. Use the email as a tool to jog the memory as opposed to create one.
My resume’ indicates that I am a graduate of “The University of Colorado at Denver”. At least half of the people interviewing me have asked where that school is located.
Everyone has these problems? Or you have these problems? Because I’m exactly the opposite. I read emails word by word. I don’t read them distractedly. I check them in the morning and move each one to the proper folder. I read new ones instantly upon receipt and put them where they belong, and respond immediately if necessary. I don’t miss details; I love details and I love reading.
I hate talking on the phone. I haven’t checked my voicemail in at least 6 months and it auto-deletes every month–and I don’t care. When the phone rings, I feel no compulsion to pick it up, merely irritation that I forgot to silence it that morning. The only thing I’ve truly needed a phone for in that timespan was once when I ran out of gas due to a malfunctioning gas meter. Compare this to email, which I use to send/receive hundreds of messages every month.
If you want to reach me in an urgent situation, email will reach me instantly unless I’m driving or asleep. If you want to reach me at night, my phone is on (as a backup alarm clock) for TRUE emergencies. But I won’t answer it unless it rings three to five times. (once to wake me up, and a couple more times to drill in that it can’t wait til morning)
People who are tied to their phones (this includes most people, unfortunately, and older people who don’t trust technology) perceive me to be unreliable because I’m just not a phone person. People who rely on email contact can’t believe how in-touch I am.
Heh - I’ve included the names and phone numbers of my references on my resume, and I often get asked for my references from people who already have (and presumably have read) my resume. Sure - reach down to your desk, pick up that piece of paper there, and read it. Viola!
Remember comprehension tests when you were in grade school? Where you were given a passage to read, then there were questions at the end about what you just read, and you were allowed to look at the passage while answering?
I, like I suspect most of the type of people who post here, could barely understand the point of the tests and never got much less than 100%. My father used to joke: “What is the point of a test where they give you the answers then ask you to write them out again?”
Nonetheless, most people got substantially less than 100% and some failed, even in upper grades of school. Reading comprehension is just not a task that everyone is perfect at and most people are substantially less than perfect at it.
Everything that you need to know about what one should expect when sending people emails and expecting people to understand is contained in this post.
You make good points, Princhester. It’s hard for me to imagine what it’s like to read an email and just not understand it, but I guess it happens. Actually, that explains a lot.
Short and to the point: No more text than can be seen without scrolling; no introductory chatting; bullets or numbers
Request a response, including date: Please let me know if you require changes before I present this to the board on Friday.
Full signatures: name, title, company, and phone number
Things like that have happened to me. Sometimes I have a little fun. “Please thank Mr. Snagglepus for accept all liability for any disclosure I might make. However, I will not accept liability for his.”
Sometimes I forward the email to Legal (theirs and mine.)
Why? So I can leave you a voice mail? Or interrupt you, exchange some pleasantries, eventually get to the point, and hope that you actually listen to me, instead of read your emails while we talk?
If I do talk to someone in person, I always follow up with an email, for tracking and reference.
Usually it’s vehicular stupidity that makes me stop and stare.
So I’m on the way to work this morning, and I’m driving along a rather long road, where the ground dips about 30 feet, then rises about 40 over the course of about half a mile.
At the top of the hill is a stoplight that’s blinking red. Traffic is backed up 5 or so cars deep.
So I’m leisurely driving toward the light in the middle lane (speeding though, 45 in a 35), and the idiots behind me are swerving around me, shaking fists at me, and generally being irritated that I’d actually have the nerve to not exceed the speed limit by 20 MPH.
All this despite the fact that regardless of how fast they speed up to that traffic jam, we’re all getting through it at more or less the same time.
It’s like people don’t think ahead AT ALL. It’s like anything that requires any sort of forethought or any sort of thought above the very most surface analysis is beyond them.
So I got a message from the woman this morning - I had sent back an e-mail, saying essentially to refer to the e-mail but here is the relevant portion. NOW she read it. Ugh.
And yes, I agree with Princhester on the reading comprehension thing. I read everything and I try to understand everything. I admit things like the iTunes contract are difficult but I try anyway. E-mails? Absolutely.
I don’t want phones to go away entirely, though. Some things are just rectified quickly by phones.
I run into this all the time, and I’ve had to (reluctantly) reach the conclusion that higher levels of thinking are truly beyond some people. When you’re in Safeway or Wal-Mart and you leave your cart in the middle of the aisle, someone will ALWAYS need to get around you, so why don’t you just make a habit of stopping your cart off to the side? But no, people are perfectly happy to keep doing the same thing over and over and never making any connections in their heads.
Who the hell are you? Seems like I’ve seen you around here before…nah.
Cat Whisperer What annoys me even more than that is people who leave their carts blocking one side and then cross to the other side of the aisle, sometimes several feet away from their aisle, so now they are blocking up both sides. Stupid!
Sure, leave a VM, and then in the email followup indicate that a VM was left.
I don’t know about your industry, but in mine people generally get to the point right away - so this exchanging of pleasantries idea, I dont know what you’re talking about.
If I call someone and speak to them on the phone, and they aren’t paying attention - well, there are some things I can control, and some things I can’t. But I can tell you I usually get a better response when talking on the phone and followup via email rather than just relying on email, which may be read on a smart phone while in traffic and being a medium that is easily skipped over. People are generally inundated with email so it’s all noise.
I totally do this. I don’t shop in too many places that have aisles that are larger than about 2.5 cart-widths, though. It’s not like I’m taking a jog and leaving my cart there. I’ve even been known to leave my cart outside of an aisle if that aisle is jammed with non-cart people. I’m not sure what else to do with big stupid cumbersome carts!
Happens to me all the time. Depending on my relationship, I’ll gently rib them about it, or say something very close to what DiosaBellissima said, "Please see the previous email, [date] & [time] then indent the bit of info they were too impatient to actually read.
And if you feel reall snarky, you can respond likewise, “I hope no one is asking you about when to expect X since you didn’t read my whole email! Please let me know if people are!!!”
The woman I was talking about parked her car across the aisle, then came to this side to get a big case of soda, then lugged it all the way back over to her side. There was no one else in the aisle but her and me so she blocked me twice and it made no sense. If she had just parked her stupid cart right next to it she would have not had to walk so far, and she was kind of frail, too.
