I'd leave the last paragraph off and just include the people you would escalate to as CCs.
Who is right?
- Thread starter hawkbirch
- Start date
I ran a few emails to a kid I was having issues with thru copilot because I knew I was angry and didn't want to create potential issues when I eventually fired him.
If you want to a blunt conversation like that don't do it in email. When my guy was sending unprofessional emails to the IT director I called him. No paper trail of me chewing his ***.
If you want to a blunt conversation like that don't do it in email. When my guy was sending unprofessional emails to the IT director I called him. No paper trail of me chewing his ***.
Northern is the Lawrence Welk Show of trolling. Somehow it is still being aired although no one has paid attention to it in a decade plus.
Emails have the benefit of documentation of the conversation as well as the ability to CC the direct supervisor to ensure accountability. You can only ask for accountability so many times before it's necessary to escalate to a more uncomfortable medium.
Yes agreed. I'm leaning more on the "angry" portion.
Outline that deliverables or actions are not acceptable, get that in an email. But I guess I interpreted OP post being that he comes across a bit assholish in his emails, that's not ok and can use professional development. (To be clear, not calling OP an ahole)
If you were, she could probably take it. From what I know, Birch is formidable in the right ways.
Oh, I know I'm an *******. I'm not offended at all.
Thank you for this constructive criticism I can use. I like your versions and critiques and think they would cause me less issues down the road. Thank you!
Some of the best advice I ever received when entering the professional workspace was "never email angry".
I would expand on that and say "never email from a place other than 'Here is the information' as people have trouble reading intent and emotions in print."
Honestly, a quick dump into Chat GPT/CoPilot/Claude with the prompt "I feel like this might be a little passive aggressive - can you tone it down a bit without losing the edge I need to get the point across" probably isn't a terrible idea.
Here's what happened when I put your email into ChatGPT with my prompt:
Co-worker,
I need to be direct about this because it has become an ongoing issue. When people email you requesting information on your cases, those emails need to be answered promptly. Failing to respond creates problems for the rest of the team and reflects poorly from a professional standpoint.
We’ve discussed communication concerns before, and at this point I need to see immediate and consistent improvement. If this continues, I will have to escalate the issue through the chain of command so it can be addressed appropriately.
I’d strongly prefer not to take that step, so please make responding to case-related emails a priority going forward.
Thank you for recognizing that fact. It was nothing personal, just trying to help...hope it goes well for ya in the future. No one likes working with or for a slacker.
I'm still on the uphill part of that learning curve.
I like this. I'm usually told that I'm right but could have been nicer.
I appreciate it. I know I need to do better but I get caught up on that I'm right and that if other people would just do their job correctly, I wouldn't have to send an email. I'm surrounded by slackers and it makes me nuts. What we do is too important to half *** it. Either do the work or go work somewhere else.Thank you for recognizing that fact. It was nothing personal, just trying to help...hope it goes well for ya in the future. No one likes working with or for a slacker.
That seems pretty fair of you, IMO...it's not like you're threatening to blow up their car or kill their cat.
Just curious: how much time was lapsing before they were responding to your emails?
Another party on the case it was four emails that were unanswered. I waited two days to complain.
How much time do you think it should take them to reasonably respond?
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This comes off as weak and immature, not tough and authoritative.
"Co-worker, you must respond to case stakeholders' email requests for information in a timely fashion. You have failed to do so with regard to Case 1, Stakeholder X, Case 2, Stakeholder Y, Case 2 Stakeholder Z. Notify me when this has been remedied on all accounts."
You told them the expectation, you were specific in their failures (thereby documenting where the issues were, so that can be used to in job performance reviews - or in termination proceedings), and now you have put further communication onus on them.
No threats, no whining. You don't say you're going to tell dad if they don't listen, you just tell dad if they don't listen. They know the rules and procedures ... or should, anyway.
This is a good way to create enemies out of your coworkers who will try to undermine you every way possible after the fact. I share your frustration but like others said, unless you are their boss, I would go about this differently, depending on your company culture and overall feel.
Thoughts and prayers.
Some of us don't share locations with all of our co-workers. Not too mention all of those people who never came back to the office after COVID.
thank You to everyone who took the time to respond. I really appreciate it.
Co-worker wasn’t the right word to choose. The better description would be these are my clients that I’m advising how to avoid court and make it go better when we do go versus being my equals. I view them as beneath me which is at least part of the issue. I stay out of my co workers cases and don’t talk to them like this.
either way, I appreciate the feedback even the ones saying I’m wrong. None of you know anyone involved so I needed the outsiders perspective. There are some suggestions that will be used right away. Thanks HO-POT!!
FWIW, I demand the same standard of perfection from myself and struggle to meet that unreasonable expectation too.
Co-worker wasn’t the right word to choose. The better description would be these are my clients that I’m advising how to avoid court and make it go better when we do go versus being my equals. I view them as beneath me which is at least part of the issue. I stay out of my co workers cases and don’t talk to them like this.
either way, I appreciate the feedback even the ones saying I’m wrong. None of you know anyone involved so I needed the outsiders perspective. There are some suggestions that will be used right away. Thanks HO-POT!!
FWIW, I demand the same standard of perfection from myself and struggle to meet that unreasonable expectation too.
Yeah, boss is right. Others have provided suggestions, and great advice. I think your boss is supplementing your lack of “soft skills” with AI
I think you should state you need a response by a certain time so you can get back with your client. That way it gives them a timeline of when they need to get back with you.
If they don’t meet that threshold, reply back and cc their boss to show they aren’t getting it done as stated and you are tired of their lack of urgency in the matter. If you pull their boss into to it then boss can communicate with you then go to that person to ask why they aren’t being responsive to the issue at hand. If this happens continuously, boss knows they have a problem that needs to be addressed and allows them to do their job.
If they don’t meet that threshold, reply back and cc their boss to show they aren’t getting it done as stated and you are tired of their lack of urgency in the matter. If you pull their boss into to it then boss can communicate with you then go to that person to ask why they aren’t being responsive to the issue at hand. If this happens continuously, boss knows they have a problem that needs to be addressed and allows them to do their job.
One thing you can do is make your responses less personal and simply stick to the facts and rules like:
"Please respond to emails the same day because we need your input for cases."
If they don't do that, then report it to a higher up..
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Run it through AI in a way that makes your emails overly long and extremely wordy
Well... uhhh... you did say "in the nicest possible way".... soooo... maybe bold "possible"? And I only offer that suggestion in the nicest possible way!
I pity the fool who has to use AI to make their emails overly long and extremely wordy.
IMO people need to quit communicating with each other via text and email. Unless you're on completely opposite shifts with no overlap, pull the person aside and have a conversation. If it goes south, then send an email summarizing the discussion and copy their supervisor.
I've had to temper this in myself over the last few years. I don't typically get too bent out of shape, but when other people's disorganization consistently puts me in a spot where I have to work 2x as hard to cover because other people can't get their **** together I get tilted. I pivoted over the last couple years to not sending snarky emails and just documenting the incompetence while keeping it as professional as possible.
It's come in handy a couple times when I've been questioned on why something didn't get done for someone and I'll dump a dozen examples of them not following processes which seems to be getting things corrected. Especially since they can see in the chain that I wasn't being confrontational.
I've found giving people slow drip examples of people sucking isn't as effective as dumping an entire log of them being ineffective. Give people enough rope and they tend to take care of it themselves.
However, untouchable Executives are another issue altogether. Too many of those dickheads and it's time to just find a new place of employment.
If it's something you want to drive home, or something important ... put it in an email, in detail ... and also talk about it in person. That way it's documented, and that way you have two avenues of communication to hopefully clear up any misunderstandings, and you have a documented reference they can refer to if their memory fails in the future (or they claim something was said that wasn't said).
Email is absolutely the only way I typically want to communicate in the IT world. It's the easiest way to extract information from people, and the easiest way to cover myself.
I learned the hard way to follow up with an email about what was discussed over a call and to have them confirm the information is correct. I got burned by someone calling me directly to have something done, I stupidly did not force them to create a ticket and they moved the goalposts on me after the fact.
Email documentation has covered my *** countless times at this point. It's a shame we have to operate that way, but I've found people have a general disrespect towards IT and will constantly try to pull one over on us.
When I was newer in the business I thought ticketing was a pain and just slowed stuff down. Those were the days, just a tech trying to do tech stuff. It was also nice to be naive to people trying to pull one over on me. Now it's more like how can I avoid speaking with department heads, bookkeepers, CFOs etc and explaining the sequence of events that lead to an $8 expenditure.
I got excited to think we are seeing the return of Lute, but no.
Good memory, wrong sentence structure.
i tested this approach one time...i wrote a 1 sentence response that was to the point that after running through copilot became a long para comprising 4-5 sentences of word salad. i suppose if i was in HR i would use it but i'm not
