I've been absent for a long time. Much of that is due to virtual burnout. What I mean by that is that my virtual life has been burning me to the ground in terms of my work email inbox. Over the past month, I have received and sent more than 750 emails. That's just what I can estimate from looking at my Inbox and my Sent Mail. There are a ton more emails that I have deleted. 500 of those emails were received in a twelve day period. My therapist validated that was stressful. As she put it, "Everyone wanted a piece of you."
Yeah ... And not a fun piece if you know what I mean.
That doesn't lend well to opening up anything email/internet related without regarding it as work or as a "problem" that needs resolution.
This morning almost tipped me over the edge. I received an "Urgent" email at 8am that said, "Have you looked this over yet?" Uhm. The answer was, "Fuck no. I did not look it over because you fucking sent it at 7pm on Friday. I have other shit to do on my weekend." The email was sent by a client and the situation was not urgent. Hmmmm....
I am the second person I know that used email back in 1992. I've had acquaintances tell me that they were using it regularly five to six years prior to that. Highly unlikely because none of those people were working with the DoD, a private interest that contracted with the DoD, or a University -- and they aren't mouth breathing anti social dorkwads who might have early email because they had no other social outlet. But whatever. I started using email when one of my best friends in college was going to take a trip to Germany the fall semester of our senior year. He mentioned that it would be fun if I got an email account and we could set dates to chat each week.
I was on board. He had an email account because he was a Physics major and the email admin for the campus was the Physics department chair. All of the majors and professors had email. Anyone else had to apply -- even other faculty. The application was no joke. I had to explain my purpose for wanting this precious resource as well as what volume I thought I'd be using. How in the world could I have estimated volume when I only knew one person who had an electronic mail address?!
My application was approved and I signed a 'contract' which said that any misuse or abuse on my part would result in an immediate revocation of my access. Forgetting my password was a three strike rule. The professor in charge just didn't have time for morons who couldn't remember their passwords. If you couldn't remember your password, you were obviously not worthy.
As a result, I take my email accounts very seriously. I do have a separate email account for personal use, but I am definitely not one of those that sends on the email chains that predict your death or financial destruction if you do not pass them on in ten minutes. I estimate that I should have died approximately 3,000 times and filed bankruptcy about 1,009 times. I do send funnies to people -- usually in the form of a link I found amusing, a photo, or a funny story about my day. My personal email is for communicating information.
To me, it doesn't matter whether it's personal or work related -- filling someone's email with annoying nonsense is nonsense.
Upon reading that urgent missive this morning, I decided that it would be best if I just "let it all hang out". Perhaps ranting about it here would help me get over this hump. Perhaps, even, I could start a revolution. Hang on tight. I have made notes. I have at least 14 days worth of rants about the topic of email ettiquette (moving forward it will be known as 'EER' -- Email Ettiquette Rant), it's demise, and the probable fall of society as we know it.
Share with me what aggravates you about what you consider email misuse -- if I haven't already put it on my list, I'm sure that it's irritated me at some point in the past 21 years. I can freestyle that. If it's already on my list, you can expect a detailed rant.
Let's start that revolution! You just might know someone who violates the ettiquette (or, at least, my definition) rules that will follow. You can forward them the post. It's a perfect use of email: Here you go dipshit. Quit doing this.
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