Pet Peeve Wednesday

Since I have a blog, I think I'll go ahead and air some of my pet peeves.  And do it on a regular basis.  I mean, why not?  After all, it's my blog!

I had a friend in the Navy who had a running list.  He updated it when something irritated him and let everyone who worked for him know about his pet peeves.  Sorta weird.  But everyone certainly knew what they were.  Of course, I'm not putting them out there for any reason except I can...so here goes.

This week's pet peeve has to do with communication.   We humans communicate with each other in many ways.  In the age of the Internet, email has become a pervasive method of communication.  Most of us would rather have a personal conversation, a phone call, a letter, smoke signals...anything but email.  But email has become an essential part of our lives, both personal and professional.  And don't get me wrong.  Email can be invaluable.  It is ideal to get a message to a large number of people.  Or to respond quickly to an urgent message.  Or to communicate some message that needs reflection and thought that may not come across in a spontaneous conversation.  I use it all day, every day.

But here is where this particular pet peeve comes in.  If you get an email and it requires a response, have the courtesy to respond.  If you have time a complete response.  If you don't a quick acknowledgement.  I'm very busy most days and I get a ton of email.  But I try to never be too busy to at least acknowledge the email.  That's just being courteous.