Silicon Valley language pet peeves
Writing in all caps and using excessive business speak have widely been driven home as no-nos... but here are some more recent language phenomenons that have caught my attention and continually get under my skin.
- Excessive signing off of emails with "Hope you have a nice..." - I know this an odd one and well intentioned, but it definitely has the potential for abuse. I'm thinking of a handful of email exchanges with various people where every mail ends with their wishing me a great or nice week, day, weekend, etc. Once is cool, but please cool it after that. This may just be my general average to the word "nice." Morrissey said it best when he sang the famous words... "I have spent my whole life, in ruins, because of people who are 'nice'."
- "Totes" - At first I thought this was reference to some sort of luggage, but it's an abbreviation for "totally." I don't like it.
- "tomo" - Certain SMS abbreviations don't bother me one bit, but for some reason, this one gets under my skin. Thw word "tomo" should only be used by those speaking Japanese... plus, typing out all of the words in "tomorrow" builds finger strength :)
- "preso" - This one is used as an abbreviation for "presentation." I never heard "preso" until starting my current job, and now I hear it several times a day and try to stop myself before saying it too. You can only imagine the horror when someone says the phrase "I'll send you my preso tomo" anywhere within my vicinity.
- Excessively long email signatures - If I need your contact info, I'll look you up on Facebook/LinkedIn or email you for it.
- Including "thanks," as part of your email signature - This one drives me insane. Sure, it's nice to say thanks every once in awhile, but having this on all your emails by default not only makes it unclear when the sender is really thanking someone, but also paints the person as some sort of crazy time-saver type-A maniac.
- Bizarre email signatures - Example: "Sorry if my email is curt... it doesn't mean I don't like you." If the people you work with are so sensitive that they require this level of emotional padding, then I suggest finding another place to work. An exception here is the "This message was sent via Blackberry"... that is actually very useful.
- Bizarre auto-responders - Tim Ferris advocates the use of these... they look something like this: "In an effort to increase productivity, I will only be responding to email at 10 am and 4 pm, for all urgent concerns, please call 555-323-4443." The covert (or maybe overt) implication here is that the person is really busy and important and that the email you just sent them isn't that important. I think the better play as an email sender when not getting the response you want is the gentle nudge mail... something like "Hey Tim, just checking in about XYZ." In my experience, that usually yields a response. It that doesn't, go track the person down at their office or call them. If none of those work, then do you really want anything to do with someone that busy?
- The use of "eom" (end of message) at the end of subject line only emails - I was introduced to this concept at Microsoft and wish it was used more. Sometimes you just need to communicate something really simple that the subject line provides enough room for... if you can say what you need to say in that space, by all means use it.
- The use of "+[PersonXYZ]" when CC'ing someone to a thread - This technique I learned at G00g and have spilled it over into my personal emails because I think it's great. Many times, you'll be in email thread with someone and not notice until a few messages deep that someone(s) else have also been added on. Anytime you add another person or list to a thread, you should either say at the very top or simply put "+[person's name]" at the top of the email so it's obvious.