The email just said, “Cancel it.” Carol Graves couldn’t believe her eyes. Carol was a marketing coordinator for Monkland Pharmaceuticals. One of her duties was to organize a professional development visiting speaker series for her marketing colleagues, mostly featuring prominent university professors or health care professionals. Given how busy people were, it was very hard to get a commitment from speakers and to schedule the talks at times that were suitable for all. Even getting a proper room for the speakers’ presentations was difficult, due to competition for meeting space. The “cancel it” email had come from Carol’s boss, Anastasia Bulos, when Carol had informed her (by email) that the monthly coordination meeting that Anastasia had just announced conflicted with one of Carol’s hard-gotten scheduled speakers. In response to the “cancel it” message, Carol had composed a heated message that accused Anastasia of undermining her, exhibiting professional disinterest, and ignoring the unit events calendar. Just before Carol was about to hit the send icon, a ping alerted her to another email from Anastasia. The sole message consisted of “☺”. The “cancel it” message had been a joke! Shortly thereafter, Anastasia announced a new date for the monthly meeting that did not conflict with the planned speaker.

1. Communication problems can occur in any medium, but what particular problems with email are apparent in this incident?

2. What are some informal “rules” about using email that might avoid the problems illustrated in incidents of this nature?