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Wow, so, what if you are the only person they are inundating with email? What if you are the only one and do not even know it? Anonymity is not as sure a thing

by Mz 9y ago

Wow, so, what if you are the only person they are inundating with email? What if you are the only one and do not even know it? Anonymity is not as sure a thing as many people seem to think especially for complaining about something so specific. You are presumably already identifying yourself as a coworker at the place of employment or whatever. I mean, if you don't have the social skills to let someone know nicely and effectively that communication needs to be handled more efficiently somehow, then you probably aren't as clever as you think when you hit "send" on something like this either. I remember an anonymous survey at BigCo where answers were so specific, they had trouble trying to share it with the bosses it was intended to go to because even without names, the details would make it clear who was complaining about you.

detaro 9y ago
Good point in general, but in many scenarios you can easily know that you are not the only person, e.g. if someone loves CC-ing way to many people or sends tons of stuff to lists. Still kind of weird way of doing it...
- Mz 9y ago
  There may be ways to know for sure that you aren't the only one, but there is quite a lot of one-sided information in the world and the internet tends to be bad about this. Many people seem unaware of the possibility that maybe something was lost in cyberspace, so if you don't get a reply or read receipt of some kind, it is not unreasonable to send a follow up email and inquire. I tend to send replies to make sure people know that I got their thing, but I have had to reign that in over time because it goes weird places socially. We really have not done a good job in the online world of finding a way to confirm that two-way communication has happened. In person, you generally are going to have a good idea if they heard you or not. Online, it can be pretty difficult to determine. And then two different people doing the exact same thing can get interpreted vastly differently. That doesn't make excessive emails less aggravating, but online communication is far harder to do well than many people seem to realize. This anonymous chewing out is not a good faith means to resolve anything.

by Mz 9y ago

detaro 9y ago

Good point in general, but in many scenarios you can easily know that you are not the only person, e.g. if someone loves CC-ing way to many people or sends tons of stuff to lists. Still kind of weird way of doing it...

Mz 9y ago
There may be ways to know for sure that you aren't the only one, but there is quite a lot of one-sided information in the world and the internet tends to be bad about this. Many people seem unaware of the possibility that maybe something was lost in cyberspace, so if you don't get a reply or read receipt of some kind, it is not unreasonable to send a follow up email and inquire. I tend to send replies to make sure people know that I got their thing, but I have had to reign that in over time because it goes weird places socially. We really have not done a good job in the online world of finding a way to confirm that two-way communication has happened. In person, you generally are going to have a good idea if they heard you or not. Online, it can be pretty difficult to determine. And then two different people doing the exact same thing can get interpreted vastly differently. That doesn't make excessive emails less aggravating, but online communication is far harder to do well than many people seem to realize. This anonymous chewing out is not a good faith means to resolve anything.