Comms like a comet

[j4]

I would like to think that if the words "Head of Communications" appeared in the signature which was appended to my every email, I would try to produce slightly more coherent email than the following:

Thanks the side bars need updating - published by -only don’t need who the printers are -esp online!

And the distribution needs tweeking - ask epople to share/pass on copies and don’t promise one for every single member of staff

Ads - might need to be less dogmatic..

But then, what do I know? I'm only a Web Publishing Assistant —

One that will do
To fix a stylesheet, write a page or two,
Advise my boss; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous ...

Comments

[keirf.livejournal.com]

Who is Epople?

[j4.livejournal.com]

I think it's a typo for the E-Pope, whose infallible pronouncements on issues of online communications help us all to interpret technical standards in the context of our everyday lives.

[keirf.livejournal.com]

Ah. As in, is the E-Pope an iCatholic? Do bears surf the net in the woods?

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

Yay Prufrock!

I've noticed the same sort of terrible communication skills from people who never miss an opportunity to mention they have a degree in communications.

[sparrowsion]

I still think you need a spam filter based on a grammar checker. Or to at least to tell people that you have.

[vinaigrettegirl.livejournal.com]

Now you have to 'tweek' e-distribution as well? That is cheap. ;-)

That communication ought to be sent anonymously to the entire alumni list so they'll know how well their donations are being spent.

[caramel-betty.livejournal.com]

As someone in a similar line of work, the biggest problem I find when reading (and writing) emails is structuring them so that you get all the information across in a useful manner. It's one of the things my manager has been hot on - making sure I use sub-headings, bullet points and so on where necessary so that I can get across all the necessary background information to people who don't have it without drowning out the questions I'm asking.

I've yet to see something quite as, erm, special as the e-mail you quote above get vomitted into an e-mail. It's the sort of thing that I'd ask my manager to send to their manager with a request along the lines of "Erm, can you make this an assessed communication exercise piece, please?"

[arnhem.livejournal.com]

the biggest problem I find when reading (and writing) emails is structuring them so that you get all the information across in a useful manner

One of the most depressing moments of my working life was the realisation that there was absolutely no point in writing anything past the first sentence of any email, as few of the recipients would ever absorb anything beyond that. Even more depressing have been the (fortunately few) occasions when people I really respect have exhibited this trait. The final nail in the coffin of my worldview was noticing myself doing this to other peoples' emails when stressed.

[caramel-betty.livejournal.com]

There's one guy at work who is, so far as I can tell, very effective and successful at the rest of his job who has a similar problem. Thing is, having part of my job being General Dogsbody for web-related things (as do the other people in my small department), he, like a lot of people, relies on us to get things done. So when he doesn't tell us what he needs, we ask him questions. If you ever ask an either / or question, there's a good chance you'll get "That's fine, go ahead." If you ask an "If W, can you answer X? If Y, can you answer Z?" you'll get back "Oh, Y is good, go with that." We stand over each others' shoulders trying to work out how to phrase an e-mail so that we get the answers we need. It's quite depressing sometimes.