There is a sales assistant in an outside office that I have never met. I’ve spoken to her only once or twice on the phone and she seems nice enough. But she commits one of my top office crimes. She flags every single email as “Highest Importance” with a bright red exclamation point.
To be fair, she has sent me some important information that I requested for an upcoming event. It was, however, similar information that I requested from other sales assistants and no one else changed the priority of their emails.
The bright red exclamation point on most to all of a person’s emails is one of my biggest pet peeves because I just don’t understand the logic behind it. If every email you send has a bright red exclamation point, every email is of equal importance.
I received nearly 10 emails from her today and all of them, in her opinion, where of highest importance. In my opinion, maybe two were of high importance and even that’s a stretch.
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27 comments:
I feel you. When I see that red flag I get immediately annoyed, because I know for sure it has no high importance at all. Hasn't failed me yet.
Maybe she just thinks she's a really important person ;)
high priority ditty: http://www.vimeo.com/28596 - highly entertaining!
(an oldie but a goodie i think!)
Love this post:):):)
Wow, I have not come across someone that does this, but I imagine I would (like you) be very annoyed!!!
Some people just don't know how to change that priority setting on their email.
I agree that it is very annoying. I also hate it when people CAPITALIZE every word in an email. If they are angry just use regular punctuation like "!" I think it's more polite that way.
so what about adding a boo smiley? Maybe you should try it before sending her an email :P
hahah, that would totally annoy me! next email you send to her should be 'lowest priority' :)
haha, I love how true this post is. Seriously, a simple "Important" in the title of the e-mail is enough. I don't need any flashy exclamation point bling.
thats hilarious! I have never used the high importance option! maybe nothing has ever been that important....hmmmm...
p.s. love the new background!
ugh i hate when people do that. another pet peeve are those people who are notorious for constantly hitting Reply All when it's not really necessary.
the boy who cried wolf!!
I just used the ! today for the first time in quite awhile. AND it was on an e-mail to the President of my company because he has not submitted his BD sheet to me to submit to the board by NOON TODAY.
! are only for seriously important things.
Ask her NOT to use them. I've done it before, sometimes it works.
LOL that is awesome..... ha ha ... i guess u should humor her and put urs in a higher importance than hers.
funny though thanks for sharing !!!
My father has this setting on with his voicemail, so every time I get a message from him it says "Message Marked Urgent." I don't think he's left me a single actually urgent message since he got a cell phone.
I'm sure she must have it set to auto-import. Is there any way you could joke about it? Say, "So I noticed you flagged the purchase of cupcakes for the office party as Highest Importance. Is there a cupcake emergency?"
Too funny!I too would be very annoyed by this.
I love the High Importance feature. It makes me feel like maybe - just maybe - "they" will notice the important e-mail I am sending to "them" instead of ignoring it as "they" usually do, then coming at me a week or two as if I failed to do MY job. It doesn't necessarily work, but it gives me some satisfaction (and ammo) when I'm aggressively confronted about failing to do my job when I in fact did it AND thought it was important enough to both of us to flag it (uh, hello, "they" are demanding to know an answer to a question that was ALREADY ANSWERED because of the perceived procrastination).
I'm not bitter or anything...
This is one of my biggest pet peeves! I have many annoying clients that do this on a daily basis
I totally agree... red flaggers are annoying.
Omg I hate exclamation points!!! Sooo annoying. When people over use it, i just put them on the bottom of my "to do" pile. ha ha.
I hate it when people do that to!! Also haven't said it yet but love the new layout! :)
Haha, I thought maybe it was irrational that I am completely annoyed by that, I'm glad to hear someone else is too! How can everything someone sends be of high importance???
Totally annoying and I can empathize 100%. Our MarCom Mgr did the same exact thing.
I finally emailed her and explained that the little red exclimation point really meant URGENT, not important.
Oh our mktg manager does this and its crazy annoying!! And then emails that should be important -- nothing.
If its not the red arrow -- it's ALL CAPS in the subject line.
And her office is right across from me -- can we talk???
Oh I HATE that!! I had a vendor that would put that stupid little red exclamation point on every email! I wrote a post about it too! http://perksofbeingajap.blogspot.com/2008/08/email-who-cried-high-importance.html NOT EVERYTHING IS THAT IMPORTANT!!!!! :)
Usually, the only time I receive emails with this is when I am working with other businesses, nothing inter-office. (Maybe it is some sort of standard to which I have not yet been introduced) Being I have an odd sense of humor, I would be passive aggressive: flag all of your emails with 'high importance.' Good luck!
I don't read "Highest Importance!" emails before any other ones... seriously people. :) Way too overused. haha
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