Every time you see her at the office, Jan from accounting is just lovely. She asks about your family, compliments your hair and has a smile on her face. Via email, she’s a total jerk.
This happens more often than you’d think. Tutoring company Preply surveyed 1,000 people, and 65% say their otherwise friendly coworkers are passive-aggressive over email.
Let’s look at how — so you’re not that person.
Top 5 types of passive-aggressive communication
- Unnecessary reminders
- Ignoring or minimal responses
- Overly formal language
- Negative tone
- Non-humorous sarcasm
The specific phrases that really get under someone’s skin
- Per my last email
- Correct me if I’m wrong
- As previously mentioned
- Just a gentle reminder
- Going forward
- Thought I’d bring this to your attention
- I might be mistaken, but
- Thanks in advance
- Just to clarify
- Please advise
It’s all in how they translate. “Per my last email” means, “Uh, can you read? I already said that.” Most people say, “I might be mistaken, but” actually mean, “You can’t really be saying something that dumb, right?”
Oh, and over half of the people say when a coworker dishes it out, they’re going to dish it right back. Not a healthy cycle, people!
My email rule: If what you need to tell me about a problem or project takes longer than one minute to type out, call me.