Plenty of work emails are long, badly organised, or written in a hurry by somebody who already knew the answer. Getting what is being asked out of a message like that, and being willing to ask when you cannot, is a work skill in its own right.
Read it for three things, in this order.
- What am I being asked to do? Often one sentence in the middle. Look for the verbs: send, confirm, check, book, phone.
- By when? A date, a day, or nothing. Nothing means you have to ask.
- Is it actually for me? If you are in CC, you are usually being told, not asked. If you are in the To line, you are being asked.
Read it twice before you feel anything. Email carries no tone of voice, and a short message from a busy person reads as cold when it is only short. Most of the emails that upset people at work were not meant the way they landed.
Answer every question in the message. If somebody asks three things and you answer two, they have to write again, and that is what makes people think you are hard to work with. Reading their email once more before you send yours catches it.
When you genuinely do not understand it, ask. The trick is to ask in a way that shows you read it: repeat back what you did understand, then name the one thing you did not. "I have the stock count for Friday. Do you want the back room included, or just the shop floor?" is a question from somebody who is paying attention. "I do not understand" is not.
You get a long email about a delivery. Somewhere in it you are asked to confirm the driver's arrival time, and you are not sure whether it means Tuesday or Wednesday.
What happens: They now have to reread their own email and guess which part lost you. It also reads as though you did not read it, even when you did, which is the impression you least want in a first job.
What happens: Right. You have shown what you understood, named exactly the gap, and pointed at why it is ambiguous. That takes them five seconds to answer, and it reads as competence rather than confusion.
The email is angry and it is about my work
Read it twice, do not reply for at least an hour, and when you do, answer only the facts. Lesson 6 covers this and the advice has not changed: nobody has ever regretted waiting an hour, and plenty of people have regretted the reply they sent in two minutes.
I was only in CC. Do I need to do anything?
Usually not. CC means you are being kept informed. If something in it clearly needs you to act, reply to the sender and ask whether they want you to, rather than assuming either way.
There is no deadline in the message
Ask for one, in the same reply where you confirm you will do it. "I will get this done, when do you need it by?" is one line and it prevents the most common misunderstanding at work, where they thought today and you thought this week.
Before you move on
- Find the ask, the deadline, and whether it is for you
- Answer every question in the message
- Ask by repeating back what you did understand
Check what you know
4 questions. Have a look at what this lesson asks.
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