E-Mail Ettiquette

Technology has it's limitations. Tone and inflection in e-mail or text is often misunderstood. I once had a boss who thought if you didn't write "Hey" or "Hi" before a person's first name in an intercompany e-mail that you were basically yelling at them or being strident. He was convinced that whoever writes an e-mail like that is pissed off when writing it even though I challenged the assertion.

Sometimes we might ask a friend, co-worker or contractor for something we need done and they agree to it but are slow to get 'er done. So we might send them a follow-up e-mail saying "I'd really appreciate if you can complete this task ASAP... thanks". Does that seem rude? Does it seem less rude to write out the words 'as soon as possible'? Feel free to comment below or on our facebook page and tell us about a time your tone was misunderstood in e-mail... ASAP! Thanks :-)