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As a manager or senior <anything> a huge part of your job is communication and distributing information, and email is one of, if not, THE core method of doing t

As a manager or senior <anything> a huge part of your job is communication and distributing information, and email is one of, if not, THE core method of doing this. The author has decided to provide poor communication because she can’t handle her inbox. One word replies can be extremely misleading and will cost her more time overall than reading and replying to her emails properly. I would be fuming if I was her boss or worked for her.

jstanley 9y ago
> The author has decided to provide poor communication On the contrary! The author has decided to provide efficient, immediate, communication, instead of vaguely planning to send a more detailed reply later if she maybe gets around to it. If everybody treated email this way it would be 100x more efficient. If her reply doesn't contain the info you need, just reply back asking for the info you need, and she'll reply within minutes.
- albertgoeswoof 9y ago
  But what if you don't know the information you need to know? Or if you're worried about looking incompetent by asking because she always sends such curt replies? Or maybe you're just hacked off that you crafted an email to try to convey a point in a clear, concise manner and she just responded with a one word reply and you have no idea whether she read it and understood it at all
  - jstanley 9y ago
    They all sound like your problems, not hers.
    - albertgoeswoof 9y ago
      They’ll be hers when she’s fired
      - MichaelMoser123 9y ago
        You just wrote a concise reply as advocated by the linked article.
- therealdrag0 9y ago
  Isn't this what instant messaging is for?
LeeHwang 9y ago
Yea I can see this backfiring over the long term. A counter example is Nintendo, where Sakurai was literally recorded, so people wouldn't be confused about the project status and what he told them to do. https://www.polygon.com/2013/11/20/5127488/a-day-in-the-extremely-busy-life-of-masahiro-sakurai https://www.polygon.com/2013/11/20/5127488/a-day-in-the-extr...
- xbeta 9y ago
  micromanagement at its extreme?
le-mark 9y ago
I'm a big fan of the "executive summary" approach. Give a one or two sentence overview, followed by the details if anyones interested. I once worked with a senior engineer who would write incredibly long, detailed emails to the point that his manager would ask, how do you have time to write these and not complete this (underspecified, unrealistic) task? He ended up getting PIP'ed and fired. I counseled him many times to keep his emails to 4-5 sentences tops. He just couldn't do it.
baby 9y ago
> provide poor communication I see that as efficient communication. No BS
- noxToken 9y ago
  It's only efficient if it answers everything that's needed by the other party. Otherwise you've started an unnecessary back-and-forth when you could you have been short but thorough the first time.
zaptheimpaler 9y ago
I like it. As an employee, it also takes the pressure off for me to be verbose and match the formality of my managers emails. And a simple explanation like "I use short emails because they are quick and easy. Please don't read too much into the tone" the first time around would allay an employees concerns. It leaves some things unsaid, but better to say them once. Like I sometimes reply "OK" or "got it" to a long request by a manager when I have nothing further to say, but if i DO have questions/concerns, they know I will say more. With that shared understanding, receiving an "ok" saves us both time and energy. Its really great.
hota_mazi 9y ago
> email is one of, if not, THE core method of doing this. I've found this to be less and less true these past years with the rise of Slack. These days, most of my email inbox searches come up empty because what I'm looking for actually happened in Slack.
- kqr 9y ago
  Proprietary, closed software will never replace open source software with standars protocols. This sounds like wishful thinking but it's more of a statement of fact. Not only because all long-lived protocols we use have open standards, but also because for many companies it does matter whether they can host their own server or not.
sailfast 9y ago
Came here to say this. It's great if you're the boss, but did you notice that in the article he says "I just assumed I understood what Mark Cuban meant in the one word reply" If that assumption is wrong and involves millions of dollars or hundreds of person-hours, what happens to your company? This is only good if the response CAN be brief and still be adequate.
IncRnd 9y ago
Brevity is the soul of wit.
synicalx 9y ago
I agree in general, single word emails either are or run the risk of being ambiguous and in many cases end up requiring followup to extract the necessary information. However in some cases they're all that's needed; "Hey boss, here's a quote for the thing we buy, can I please get your approval for the spend?" "approved" That's perfectly sufficient, and it's a single word. Also I've found single word replies are a nice way of telling if it's actually the big boss that's replying to you, or their PA :)

jstanley 9y ago

> The author has decided to provide poor communication On the contrary! The author has decided to provide efficient, immediate, communication, instead of vaguely planning to send a more detailed reply later if she maybe gets around to it. If everybody treated email this way it would be 100x more efficient. If her reply doesn't contain the info you need, just reply back asking for the info you need, and she'll reply within minutes.

albertgoeswoof 9y ago
But what if you don't know the information you need to know? Or if you're worried about looking incompetent by asking because she always sends such curt replies? Or maybe you're just hacked off that you crafted an email to try to convey a point in a clear, concise manner and she just responded with a one word reply and you have no idea whether she read it and understood it at all
- jstanley 9y ago
  They all sound like your problems, not hers.
  - albertgoeswoof 9y ago
    They’ll be hers when she’s fired
    - MichaelMoser123 9y ago
      You just wrote a concise reply as advocated by the linked article.
therealdrag0 9y ago
Isn't this what instant messaging is for?

LeeHwang 9y ago

Yea I can see this backfiring over the long term. A counter example is Nintendo, where Sakurai was literally recorded, so people wouldn't be confused about the project status and what he told them to do. https://www.polygon.com/2013/11/20/5127488/a-day-in-the-extremely-busy-life-of-masahiro-sakurai https://www.polygon.com/2013/11/20/5127488/a-day-in-the-extr...

xbeta 9y ago
micromanagement at its extreme?

le-mark 9y ago

I'm a big fan of the "executive summary" approach. Give a one or two sentence overview, followed by the details if anyones interested. I once worked with a senior engineer who would write incredibly long, detailed emails to the point that his manager would ask, how do you have time to write these and not complete this (underspecified, unrealistic) task? He ended up getting PIP'ed and fired. I counseled him many times to keep his emails to 4-5 sentences tops. He just couldn't do it.

baby 9y ago

> provide poor communication I see that as efficient communication. No BS

noxToken 9y ago
It's only efficient if it answers everything that's needed by the other party. Otherwise you've started an unnecessary back-and-forth when you could you have been short but thorough the first time.

zaptheimpaler 9y ago

I like it. As an employee, it also takes the pressure off for me to be verbose and match the formality of my managers emails. And a simple explanation like "I use short emails because they are quick and easy. Please don't read too much into the tone" the first time around would allay an employees concerns. It leaves some things unsaid, but better to say them once. Like I sometimes reply "OK" or "got it" to a long request by a manager when I have nothing further to say, but if i DO have questions/concerns, they know I will say more. With that shared understanding, receiving an "ok" saves us both time and energy. Its really great.

hota_mazi 9y ago

> email is one of, if not, THE core method of doing this. I've found this to be less and less true these past years with the rise of Slack. These days, most of my email inbox searches come up empty because what I'm looking for actually happened in Slack.

kqr 9y ago
Proprietary, closed software will never replace open source software with standars protocols. This sounds like wishful thinking but it's more of a statement of fact. Not only because all long-lived protocols we use have open standards, but also because for many companies it does matter whether they can host their own server or not.

sailfast 9y ago

Came here to say this. It's great if you're the boss, but did you notice that in the article he says "I just assumed I understood what Mark Cuban meant in the one word reply" If that assumption is wrong and involves millions of dollars or hundreds of person-hours, what happens to your company? This is only good if the response CAN be brief and still be adequate.

IncRnd 9y ago

Brevity is the soul of wit.

synicalx 9y ago

I agree in general, single word emails either are or run the risk of being ambiguous and in many cases end up requiring followup to extract the necessary information. However in some cases they're all that's needed; "Hey boss, here's a quote for the thing we buy, can I please get your approval for the spend?" "approved" That's perfectly sufficient, and it's a single word. Also I've found single word replies are a nice way of telling if it's actually the big boss that's replying to you, or their PA :)