Why YSK: These email tips are helpful for people who struggle with boundaries and want to communicate more assertively.
Some of these come across dickish
this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2023
929 points (90.4% liked)
You Should Know
33226 readers
155 users here now
YSK - for all the things that can make your life easier!
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Rules (interactive)
Rule 1- All posts must begin with YSK.
All posts must begin with YSK. If you're a Mastodon user, then include YSK after @youshouldknow. This is a community to share tips and tricks that will help you improve your life.
Rule 2- Your post body text must include the reason "Why" YSK:
**In your post's text body, you must include the reason "Why" YSK: It’s helpful for readability, and informs readers about the importance of the content. **
Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.
Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.
Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.
That's it.
Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.
Posts and comments which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.
Rule 6- Regarding non-YSK posts.
Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-YSK posts using the [META] tag on your post title.
Rule 7- You can't harass or disturb other members.
If you harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
If you are a member, sympathizer or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.
For further explanation, clarification and feedback about this rule, you may follow this link.
Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.
Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.
Let everyone have their own content.
Rule 10- The majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.
Unless included in our Whitelist for Bots, your bot will not be allowed to participate in this community. To have your bot whitelisted, please contact the moderators for a short review.
Partnered Communities:
You can view our partnered communities list by following this link. To partner with our community and be included, you are free to message the moderators or comment on a pinned post.
Community Moderation
For inquiry on becoming a moderator of this community, you may comment on the pinned post of the time, or simply shoot a message to the current moderators.
Credits
Our icon(masterpiece) was made by @clen15!
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
I think it's really interesting how different people find these dickish or awesome. I wonder if it depends on the context and the source of the email?
It is pretty funny that the assertive ones that are clear are the ones I have been told are too aggressive and that everything should be passive so the recipient doesn't feel pressured. If course the people that told me that were passive aggressive and always caused drama while all the assertive people got along fine and were clear about each other's opinions and came to compromises.
I think people's take on them also comes from past negative experiences.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Corpo bullshit. Silverhand wouldn't approve
Yeah, I can tell why this is from adhddd.com, it's all about assertiveness. People with ADHD in general (including myself, to an extent) have trouble with being assertive, so most of the phrases in this chart try to change a meek or mild-mannered response to a more assertive one. I think part of the struggle of life is finding balance because while some of these are generally improvements, others are generally worse, and the difference will depend on the tone you're going for and the person that you're sending the email.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Improving my work emails is 99% of what I use ChatGPT for.
While most of these are a good rule of thumb, I disagree with 'Always Happy to Help.' > 'No Problem.'
'I'm Always Happy to Help' is a fine response, if you're actually willing to make your time available for the recipient at the drop of a hat. Sometimes that's called for, but I would only reserve it for a few very specific circumstances. I also don't see an issue with saying 'no problem' most of the time. There are situations where something a little more formal is called for, but 90% of the time 'no problem' should work imho.
load more comments
(2 replies)
I have very mixed feelings about this. I feel personally attacked, but also might reference this moving forward
Always happy to help!
load more comments
(1 replies)
I attach a goatse to my email communicationsz tonrrally drive home the point of urgency in the face of devastating consequences.
Follow me for more productivity tips.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Some of these are great and I will definitely steal a few. I especially appreciate these as a non-native speaker.
Saying It’d be easier to discuss in person comes off as “I can’t legally put this in writing because it’s against your contract” and not “this is hard to word/explain.” Lol. This is straight PR shit.
I hate people doing that. It means that they can’t be bothered to think about their problem and what it actually is that they want from me.
If you can’t put it in words, you can’t put it in words. Changing the medium from mail to sound won’t help. Thinking will.
that's not necessarily what it means. some things legitimately are easier to explain in person. ever try working out a complicated mathematical argument in an email? one can do it, but it's not pretty. in person you can write on paper, draw figures, etc., synchronously with your compatriot observing and even participating. it's not merely a change of medium from text to sound.
load more comments
(2 replies)
Depends on who says it and whether they document it after. I do meet up to discuss when I have a lot of questions that will likely lead to questions, but I summarize it in a reply to the email so it is in writing.
A past jerk of a boss used the same phrase to mean what you said, but since he didn't put anything in writing none of the rants he called discussions mattered as he couldn't use them against me.
This was created by a comic creator with ADHD. A lot of these are helpful for people with loose time boundaries.
Some of these are good, because getting into the habit of thanking people for helping (“thanks for catching that!”) fosters good working relationships or providing specifics that, presumably, work for you, too (“can you do [x] times?”) is a better starting point than being truly open ended.
But I well and truly despise the “thanks for your patience/when can I expect” because we ALL know what you mean and I respect someone far more if they acknowledge, explain, and move on from their errors than just…reword shit.
I like how this post started a lot of good discussions on what people like and dislike in email communication. Really lively in here.
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
I was hoping for something else when I saw the title.
But, now that I am here:
I will soon start a new job, where the number of emails will be much larger than it is now. Any recommendations for sorting these ‘like a boss’?
I am using Mac mail, but can change to outlook if there are some good reasons - and stuff Mac mail can’t do (mail wise).
load more comments
(1 replies)