Right after I got my first job out of college, I sent an email like that to a coworker, and later, when I saw him in person, I mentioned the email, and he said that he saw that stuff at the top and just deleted the email without reading further.
Now, that guy was an asshole, not just for that interaction but for many others. For example, he had a doctorate, and insisted that people call him “Dr. Clark”, rather than his first name, even though nobody else did that.
But I did start writing emails much better after that. I write the subject in order to get people to decide to read the body. The first sentence of the body is what I am asking them to do. The next few sentences are the most important points, and the rest is details. I know… It’s just like they teach you to write in English classes, but it didn’t sink in until I spent a long while writing an email and it was immediately tossed in the garbage unread.
If you don’t fluff them up first, then they get upset that you’re too blunt. But if you do add the fluff, then other people get upset that you’re wasting their time with fluff.
Personally, I think a healthy person should be able to accept an email that says like “Please update SomeLibrary to 9.0.2 (or later) by Friday. The maintainers fixed a security issue, and we should upgrade” without crying about how you hurt their feelings, but many people are not healthy.
Right after I got my first job out of college, I sent an email like that to a coworker, and later, when I saw him in person, I mentioned the email, and he said that he saw that stuff at the top and just deleted the email without reading further.
Now, that guy was an asshole, not just for that interaction but for many others. For example, he had a doctorate, and insisted that people call him “Dr. Clark”, rather than his first name, even though nobody else did that.
But I did start writing emails much better after that. I write the subject in order to get people to decide to read the body. The first sentence of the body is what I am asking them to do. The next few sentences are the most important points, and the rest is details. I know… It’s just like they teach you to write in English classes, but it didn’t sink in until I spent a long while writing an email and it was immediately tossed in the garbage unread.
My emails to clients are just a stream of consciousness about the fix to the bug they reported.
If I’m particularly overthinking I just get my boss to proof read and edit.
It is kind of sometimes a can’t-win situation.
If you don’t fluff them up first, then they get upset that you’re too blunt. But if you do add the fluff, then other people get upset that you’re wasting their time with fluff.
Personally, I think a healthy person should be able to accept an email that says like “Please update SomeLibrary to 9.0.2 (or later) by Friday. The maintainers fixed a security issue, and we should upgrade” without crying about how you hurt their feelings, but many people are not healthy.