The silent epidemic of email overload

Email communications are like oxygen in today's corporate governance and business promotions, but the lack of proper email management can cause unnecessary stress for co-workers and customers and increase the cost of IT storage for our companies.

The most tedious aspect is how we unknowingly overload others' inboxes. One of the most overused functions of email is "Reply All". Wedo not use "Reply All" wisely while messaging. We need more thought to avoid flooding many colleagues' inboxes when we should have relied on a few relevant individuals. This practice can lead to great annoyance and waste time for others. "Reply All" can also perpetuate lengthy threads that become difficult to follow, leading to poor decisions.

Imagine a situation when we disagree over email. What would happen when everyone starts using 'Reply All', as they disagree? That can escalate to an email war and tension among a wide audience.

There are many such limitations in our email etiquette. Our email behaviour needs to be better thought out: emails need to be more concise, polite and well-formatted. The subject lines are a serious problem for us. Most of the time, they are vague, not to the point, and too long.

While sending our emails, we are in a hurry all the time. We don't proofread what we write. So, several typos, grammatical errors, and wrong information go out when we click the "send" button, which can harm our professional credibility.

I have made such mistakes several times in my professional life. However, many years ago, when I started working with an international broadcasting corporation, I found that the first subjects they taught the newcomers were email management and the use of search engines.

We also make many other mistakes, such as delayed responses, neglecting to use BCC for group emails, forgetting attachments, and sending confidential information insecurely.

Using emails for urgent communication is also a grave problem. Is the recipient constantly sitting in front of his/her laptop? No. Our urgent email might not be checked immediately. What do you think we should use for urgent matters? Yes, a direct call.

This is called an overreliance on email. An over-reliant person on one single medium of communication is susceptible to being identified as a weak communicator.

Let us not also overlook the practices of unmanaging the inbox effectively, using the to-do list, forgetting to customise automated responses, and the absence of a signature.

Writing a long email could also be a problem. Large text can be difficult and monotonous to read, and it can cause the key points to be missed. The wisest approach is to make the email short, using bullet points to improve clarity.

The most cumbersome moments are when you have to call a colleague to remind him/her that you just sent an email.

We may try to make our emails as simple and easy as possible so that recipients can understand our core points. Mature email etiquette takes time to develop. Training is important to grasping the best practices of email governance. Our HR functions could take it seriously, making email behaviour mandatory as they run learning sessions for co-workers.

Otherwise, many of our important messages and decisions are lost in this email quagmire.

Ekram Kabir is a communications professional.