Today, every one sends emails about everything. Email to family, friends, enemies, chat rooms etc. Although businesses give lip service to not using emails, they instead created “secure” portals to communicate by email nonetheless. Electronic communication developed into a form of communication that can make or break friendships, or write a business deal, or deal breaker.
In the business world, emails are the number one method of communication followed by written letters. Medical information remains restrictive due to HIPAA, but for the most part, physicians do communicate with their patients by emails.(Not a good idea!) Conversations can become more informal although patients don’t realize emails go into patient notes along with everything else.
There are several problems with communicating by email. First, emails have no “tone”, or “tone of voice.” The most typical example used by communication professors is when one person mistakingly sends a message ALL IN CAPS; and, the response is: “Stop yelling at me!” The presumption of “yelling”, an adverse perception on the other end to be sure, is not to blame for the senders slip of the caps lock.
Verbal communication is always interpreted by the brain in conjunction with tone of voice, inflection, facial expression and body posture, all of which are missing from emails. Someone who sends a perfectly appropriate email, but short, curt and to the point, can so easily be mistaken as “offending” because of the lack of tone of voice, facial expression and body posture. I’ve actually watched an email thread go from bad to worse because one person took offense and influenced all the other commenters.
A common response is, “I didn’t mean it that way” is very popular when someone takes offense to an email. Although some people are simply “offendable”, the absence of visual effects in emails makes it easier to “bitch out” someone without looking them in the face. This is why, on a personal level, chat rooms can be so offensive.
Business communications, on the other hand are not intentionally written to offend. Still, employees and staff members may take offense for no other reason than they don’t like or accept the message. Language and tone are two different things.
Also, I think it’s a good idea to realize that people in business do not have the time to dance around people on egg shells, or even to construct language that is patronizing, so as not to offend. Business emails are usually written in a neutral way to get the communication done in the shortest amount of time. There is no tone of voice, facial expression except that perceived or imagined by the recipient.
Punctuation can also hint at the tone of an email. For example, if I sent out an email saying, “This is inappropriate!” versus, “This is inappropriate” my message could be perceived as two different things. This is why senders could be a bit more aware, and tone down the punctuation a bit. LOL is often used at the end of a sentence to show “intent” so readers won’t take offense. Think about it, isn’t that true?
Emails are not recommended as a credible communication for disability insureds. Emails have a tendency to become too relaxed, friendly, and exposing then they need to be. There are other reasons, but I’ve never recommended for insureds to communicate with their physicians or insurance companies by emails.
Finally, some people are just wound too tight and will take an offense to anything that’s written. If this happens, just move on, don’t argue, or start a bad thread. Just move on.
But, remember both when sending, or receiving emails, that there is no tone of voice, or expressive intent in the written word; it’s all interpretative perception because the message may not be what the recipient wants to hear. And, give the sender a break.
