Gillian Shaw
Sun
online : HAVE YOU EVER MADE A COLLEAGUE MAD AT YOU BECAUSE YOUR E-MAIL READ LIKE THIS?
Or maybe your 😉 was misconstrued as a :'(.
Or you’ve fired off an e-mail to a colleague in a far-flung city and then spent the next three hours trying to follow up by phone to make sure it was read and understood.
If so, you’re not alone.
Almost 40 per cent of Canadians have run into a work problem that arose from an e-mail being misinterpreted.
Two-thirds of Canadians worry their e-mail may be misinterpreted and they worry about how the recipients will react. Some 62 per cent prefer to use the phone or talk in person for business communication.
The figures are from a survey done by the Strategic Counsel for Microsoft Canada which is hoping to solve some of those e-mail concerns with the launch this week of a new suite of communications software led by Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and the user’s software, Microsoft Office Communicator.
Designed to put an end to telephone tag and e-mail mayhem, the software borrows lessons from instant messaging and lets users pinpoint the availability of people they want to reach. A simple icon can let them know whether someone is available at the office or on their cellphone to take a call, whether they’re in a ‘do not disturb’ meeting or how best to reach them.
The survey shows that while more than a quarter of Canadians use e-mail to conduct business, it is not always the most efficient way to communicate.
Almost a third of people say they have recalled an e-mail because of worries that the tone or intent may be misinterpreted by the receiver. And they are so concerned that 83 per cent of Canadians re-read their e-mails before they hit the send button to make sure they are not conveying the wrong message.
Re-reading, recalling and agonizing over e-mail can swallow up valuable time.
According to the survey, 36 per cent of people spend more than 30 minutes a day crafting e-mails before sending.
More than a third of Canadians feel e-mail is ineffective in conveying intent, tone and emotional context. So almost 60 per cent use capital letters and emoticons — groups of punctuation marks intended to convey everything from a wink to tears — in work e-mails to try and add the sense of emotion and the intent of what they are trying to get across.
“We all have had experiences where e-mails have been misinterpreted,” said Bryan Rusche, unified communications and collaboration product manager for Microsoft Canada.
Rusche said communications are at crossroads right now and business people are beginning to realize the phone is often the best way to communicate some messages.
“It starts to paint a picture that says e-mail is great for a lot of different things but not necessarily every communication is right for e-mail,” he said.
The problem becomes reaching the person on the phone.
“It is difficult to know if a person when you reach out to make a call, or to e-mail them, is going to be available,” said Rusche.
The key capability in the new communications software is something Microsoft refers to as ‘presence,’ said Rusche.
Drawing on what is already familiar to users of instant messaging, the software displays little icons to show the person’s status — whether they’re away, available or how they can be reached.
“We have the ability to say whether we are available to accept a communication,” said Rusche.
While the software, which pulls information from a variety of sources — including your calendar — may seem a little invasive of privacy, Rusche said control is in the hands of the users. They can choose how they want people to communicate with them or if they don’t want to be reached at all.
“When we talk about these types of technologies some people feel it is an invasion of privacy potentially,” said Rusche. “But you also have the ability to present how you want to be communicated.
“When I am in a presentation, I can set it to ‘do not disturb’ so I don’t have instant messages popping up on my screen when I am presenting.”
© The Vancouver Sun 2007