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As much as employees would like to see email disappear from their professional lives, it persists like a constant but irregular beat, screwing with their productivity and, in extreme cases, even causing interpretative dance moves to break out in the office, a chaotic ballet of 'Mark as read' and 'Move to trash.'

In an attempt to see how people cope, we turned to X. Turns out, humor is usually the answer. So we put together a collection of hilariously accurate posts depicting the struggles of email correspondence at work.

#1

Funny-Work-Emails

mo87mo87 Report

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Libstak
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Had a co worker Betty, another co worker had all sorts of trouble getting her name right cos "auto correct" kept changing it to Batty. It was only her auto correct though, funny that.

Papa
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

For me it's when I email someone that they didn't reply to my previous email, only to have them resend their reply that I totally forgot about.

Avi <3
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I have on occasion spelled my name wrong, so I feel your pain

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A survey of 8,000 Americans and Brits revealed that an average employee spends 10 hours and 47 minutes a week drafting emails.

Considering that they send out 112 of them in the same period, that means that workers spend just over five and a half minutes on each one.

The respondents believe their emails are only fully read and understood just 1 out of 3 times (36%).

This might explain why they said that when their email is responded to, it's common to have their questions not be answered (62%), to be addressed by the wrong name (51%), or to be asked a question they just answered (49%).

#4

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Olivianuzzi Report

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MarBar
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9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Almost. every. one. On an unrelated note, I recently learned that there are actual, diagnosable phobias to email, virtual meetings, and so on...

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However, only the minority shouldn't be blamed for this; most of the respondents said they are guilty of not reading emails, too.

Over half (57%) admitted that if an email is “too long” — eight or more sentences — they won’t bother reading the whole thing.

With that, employees delete or otherwise don’t read an email based solely on the subject line an average of eight times per day.

But this oftentimes has consequences. 45% of respondents have missed something (like a deadline, a meeting, etc.) because they didn't read an important email.

#6

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shesatornado Report

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Michael Largey
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9 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Actually cruel, because it can only taunt a trapped person. A successful escapee will never see it.

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#7

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pseudo310 Report

#8

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NateSilver538 Report

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BrownTabby
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I mean this in the gentlest possible way, you are almost certainly not being paid enough to overthink it this much.

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#9

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TheBlackHermit Report

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Papa
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9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm checking in to see if you've had a chance to look at my last email = Get off your a*s and take care of this please!

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Almost half (46%) of respondents feel that email is an outdated form of communication.

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Much of their frustration comes from losing emails to the spam or junk folders (53%), or their inbox being clogged with emails that aren't relevant to them (50%) — others said it's easy to misconstrue tone over email (47%) and there's an expectation of staying formal (45%).

#12

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lucy_hunt Report

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Ample Aardvark
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9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Unless it's a matter of life or death (which is never in my profession), my usual answer is "I've now allocated time to deal with your request/query next week" so I actually have a few days to work on it

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According to Keith Spencer, Career Expert at FlexJobs, a platform that helps people find remote, hybrid, and flexible job opportunities, there are a few things we can do to make each other's lives a little easier.

"Your level of formality is going to depend on the situation," he told Bored Panda. "But it's usually best to keep things a bit more formal when you are communicating with someone outside your organization, like a client or external partner, or when you're interacting with someone from your same company for the first time."

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#14

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BrownTabby
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9 months ago

This comment has been deleted.

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#15

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MarBar
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9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Recently, I told a younger person that I got two of my advanced degrees before there was email, to which she exclaimed: "What?! How did you talk to your professors???" I said, calmly, "We went to class." Her response: <>

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Spencer said, "if you're exchanging emails with someone internally, like another member of your team, you can start out formal but then aim to mirror their communication style and let your tone become somewhat more casual over time, especially as you build a relationship with them."

"Keep in mind, though, that you can be formal, professional, and friendly all at the same time, you just don't want your work emails to have the same tone as an email to your best friend," he highlighted.

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#19

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#20

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Skoog Report

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Papa
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My personal favorite is "Perhaps if you had read the content of the email instead of just the subject line this would be clear to you."

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#22

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BrownTabby
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9 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

As an Air New Zealand passenger, I wanna say it TO Greg because in most cases he’s the one being a greedy douchebag while his workers carry his dead weight.

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#23

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BrownTabby
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9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

anyone who sends a work email *and expects a reply. My clients are in a different timezone than me; they can send emails whenever they want as long as they respect that I’ll answer it when I start the next day.

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#24

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Dane
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This shows that (in the US at least), bullying exists in the corporate world. If you do not dictate your hours, your availability, your area of responsibility/expertise, etc, others will dictate it for you.

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#26

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Sarah
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

After using outlook for a decade, I had to switch to gmail and for business, it's shockingly worse. NEVER thought I'd miss Outlook...

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#27

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Trophy Husband
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9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

How exactly does one hurl oneself into the sun from earth? Asking for a friend.

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#28

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Connie Martin
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This photo hurts my heart EVERY TIME it pops up somewhere. I hope she's enjoying her life, wherever this little girl is.

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#29

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Upstaged75
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's exactly what I do for a living. My job title says otherwise but that's about the gist of it.

#31

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Tabitha
Community Member
9 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Or just never end an email that way. Never. Let your email be the end of the conversation. Well, at least try to do that.

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#32

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Ralph Watkins
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I loved getting that emails with the "delete after reading" or "for your eyes only". I'd immediately printed them out. Over the years I learned that emails like that signified unethical & even illegal proposals.

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#33

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Michael Largey
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Discuss your idea with HR. I think they may have a solution for you.

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#38

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Foto Gini
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9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Writing "Cheers" as you know for a fact that nobody is cheerful after reading this email.

#39

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nia not long
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If it's not what I asked for or if what I asked for isn't in it, I just might want to fight lol

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#40

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roobeekeane Report

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