"We Probably Shouldn't Put This in Email," and Other Words You Should Never Use in an Email
We can never be reminded often enough of the "things you should not say over email." This is one topic that deserves the endless flogging from the media and bloggers (and from lawyers) that it seems to receive.
NPR has a nice little list ("23 Things Not to Write in an E-mail") of 23 words and phrases that are red flags for problematic emails - here are a few of the choice ones:
The list came from a report prepared by the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy examiner who used these and other terms to search for problematic emails. Bloomberg news covers the report here, in an article that's well worth reading.
Another recent reminder of the perils of putting stuff in emails came from the Viacom v. YouTube case. Farhad Manjoo of Slate looks at some of the juicy emails here. There are also the Wikileaks-related chats between a (now-former) army intelligence analyst and a former hacker where the analyst throws in "I can't believe what I'm confessing to you" in his chats with the former hacker. Threat Level published excerpts of those chats which make for interesting reading.
I'm surprised email programs don't contain standard filters which screen for red flags. Judging from our propensity to put stuff in email that makes us look bad, something like this would be useful and worth the hassle.
[When I make this point, I always wonder if it comes across like I'm telling people it's fine if they engage in shenanigans, but they should just take care to not document it. The point is that emails can be misconstrued or presented without context, and it's worth trying to minimize this by watching what you say on email. Of course, some would say that if you are going to do something that you're worried about discussing on email, you should probably think twice about doing it in the first place, but that's neither here nor there.]
Added: Gabriel Gunderson makes a good point in comments about BP. The BP emails will soon be "gushing forth," if they haven't already.
NPR has a nice little list ("23 Things Not to Write in an E-mail") of 23 words and phrases that are red flags for problematic emails - here are a few of the choice ones:
- big mistake
- serious trouble
- too late
- uncomfortable
- not comfortable
- I don’t think we should
- don’t share this
- between you and me
- just between us
The list came from a report prepared by the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy examiner who used these and other terms to search for problematic emails. Bloomberg news covers the report here, in an article that's well worth reading.
Another recent reminder of the perils of putting stuff in emails came from the Viacom v. YouTube case. Farhad Manjoo of Slate looks at some of the juicy emails here. There are also the Wikileaks-related chats between a (now-former) army intelligence analyst and a former hacker where the analyst throws in "I can't believe what I'm confessing to you" in his chats with the former hacker. Threat Level published excerpts of those chats which make for interesting reading.
I'm surprised email programs don't contain standard filters which screen for red flags. Judging from our propensity to put stuff in email that makes us look bad, something like this would be useful and worth the hassle.
[When I make this point, I always wonder if it comes across like I'm telling people it's fine if they engage in shenanigans, but they should just take care to not document it. The point is that emails can be misconstrued or presented without context, and it's worth trying to minimize this by watching what you say on email. Of course, some would say that if you are going to do something that you're worried about discussing on email, you should probably think twice about doing it in the first place, but that's neither here nor there.]
Added: Gabriel Gunderson makes a good point in comments about BP. The BP emails will soon be "gushing forth," if they haven't already.
Nobody knows this better than the folks at BP. Those new emails released today show they were pushing drilling dangerously far.
I wonder if I should even be saying this in a blog comment :)
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Excellent post! I should send it to all my clients, just in case. I like especially that you aren't telling people how to engage in "shenanigans," but instead making sure they are prudent and sensible.
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