Email Etiquette: "Forward" at your own risk

I once got an email from my boss that seemed no different from any other. She asked me to follow up (push for results) with a team that was working on one of her projects. The email faintly hinted that one of the team's leaders was an absolute idiot.

Apparently, I didn't pick up on this. So I clicked "forward," wrote a quick note to the team to "see below" and played my role as the middle man. The next day there was a note from my boss in my cube. "See me when you get in," it read.

She wasn't thrilled that a high-level team manager might read her email and be offended. After re-reading the email, I wasn't surprised. I just should've read a little closer before I clicked "send."

Think of it this way, the "forward" button is like a chainsaw. It's a damn great tool when you know how to use it. But if you don't, it's dangerous to you and everyone around you.

A lot of companies preach good "email etiquette." Don't write too long, know the difference between "reply" and "reply to all" and of course, spell check! Everyone mentions the responsibility you have to your own writing, but what about the responsibility you have to everyone else's?

Face it, as an entry-level employee it's your job to watch people's asses. "Goes with the territory," a coworker once told me. If you're planning on passing on an email that someone else wrote, do a quick sweep to make sure you're not unknowingly soiling anyone's spotless image.

More than often now, I don't forward anything that's part of a long chain letter. There's too many "what ifs" associated with it.

You're not perfect. Even if you examine that email thoroughly, there's a dicey chance that you'll miss something. Or, you could fail to "read between the lines" like I did.

Start with a clean slate. As long as you're skillful in writing for results you should have no problem restating what the next employee in the chain needs to know. But that's a topic for another post.