A nice reminder1/27/2024 Sometimes, email can become overwhelming. IT INCREASES THE CHANCES OF YOUR MESSAGE BEING IGNORED Dropping the phrase will make you look more professional. Therefore, even if you are emailing your boss, drop the “ just a friendly reminder” phrase. Remember, you are asking for something that you need in order to get your job done, not a favor. It is possible to be polite while still being assertive. You don’t have to be a pushover just because you are dealing with someone senior to you. However, this is the wrong approach, since it makes you seem like a pushover, like someone who cannot assertively stand up for themselves. If your boss forgot to send you something that you need to accomplish your work, you don’t want to sound like you are being bossy to them, so you decide to just send a friendly reminder to politely ask them for whatever it is they forgot to send. Normally, when people are communicating with someone who outranks them in the organizational hierarchy, they tend to use more subordinate language. IT MAKES HIGHER-UPS VIEW YOU AS A PUSHOVER The same applies when you use overly apologetic words such as “ I’m sorry.”Ĭonsider someone saying something like “ I’m sorry, but I don’t think that is the best approach” vis-à-vis saying “ I don’t think that is the best approach.” Such words are an expression of self-doubt, which can make whatever you are saying seem less credible. It makes whoever is saying these words seem wishy-washy, like they are not sure of what they are saying. In both cases, using the word “ pretty” and the phrase “ think we might want to” takes away from the message being passed. What comes into your mind when someone says something like, “ I’m pretty certain about xyz” instead of “ I am certain of xyz” or “ I think we might want to do this” instead of “ we need to do this.” Some of the words that lessen your credibility include hedge words and apologetic words. Your choice of words when communicating, whether in person or in writing, has a huge impact on how your message is perceived by the other party.Īccording to Georgetown University professor Deborah Tannen, who is also the author of Talking from 9 to 5: Women and Men at Work, the words you use in your communication can boost or deflate your credibility. Therefore, you need to stop sending these friendly reminders – from today.īelow are some reasons why the friendly reminder might be doing you more harm than good. They know you are displeased because of having to send a reminder, and therefore your thinly veiled polite reminder does not cut it. The friendly reminder reeks of cowardice and insincerity, and most of the people you send the friendly reminders to might be secretly hating you for that. While the intention of sending the friendly reminder is to be polite and professional, it might be sending the wrong message. Put simply, the friendly reminder is an attempt at asking for something we should have already received in a polite, non-confrontational manner. When most of us find ourselves in such a situation, our automatic reaction is to send a “friendly reminder.”Įven though we are angry at the recipient of reminder (why can’t they do what they were supposed to without having to be reminded about it?), we figure that sending the friendly reminder will disguise our annoyance and allow us to maintain an air of professionalism. Reminding a client about a late payment, reminding a colleague about something they haven’t done that can affect the whole project, reminding a vendor or supplier about a late shipment, reminding someone about an upcoming milestone, reminding someone about something they had promised or were supposed to do but haven’t done, the list is endless. There are several situations that might require you to send an email reminder. I know I have.Įven if you haven’t, I am willing to bet that you have received such emails from a work colleague, and I can bet you weren’t exactly happy with this reminder. You have done such a thing one or two times. “Just sending you a friendly reminder to please furnish me with the information about xyz.”Īdmit it. If they don’t send the information on time, you will miss the deadline for submitting the report, so you decide to write an email reminding them of your request.Īt this point, you are probably very annoyed with your colleague, but because you want to maintain an air of professionalism, you send them an email with the following message: They did not even acknowledge receiving your email. The report is due in a few days’ time, yet the colleague has not sent the information you requested. Picture this scenario: You sent an email to a colleague a couple days ago requesting some information that you need to include in a report you are working on.
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