EDITOR’S CORNER: Those Naughty and Nice Emails.

As 2013 winds down I’m thinking about how grateful I am for the many NICE emails Furniture World readers have shared with me this year. I’m also considering some NAUGHTY emails that subscribers and industry friends have forwarded on, usually accompanied with the introduction, “Can you believe what I just received...?”

There are cases where strongly worded communications with employees and others are required, but before you press “send”, I suggest the following five steps:

• Never send out an email that you would not want forwarded to other employees, your boss, competition, members of the press or to have posted to Facebook.
  
  
• Never cc or bcc a harsh sounding or critical email to an entire employee group or team. Emails that scold, voice frustration or threaten action are best left unsent. Don’t be cowardly. Instead, pick up the phone, then follow up with a summary email. 
  
  
• Always consider your company’s co-responsibility for whatever has gone wrong. 
  
  
• Think about the likely reaction of the recipient. Will it be anger, resentment, frustration or the desired response?
  
  
• Try to temper negativity with personal concern. Just because you dislike someone’s performance, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t care about them as a person. 

Best wishes for a happy, healthy and very nice holiday season from all of us at Furniture World.