The Most Frustrating Email in the World

Jon SteinbergPersona influyente

CEO Daily Mail, North America

“Please call me.”

“I need to speak to you can you please give me a call.”

“Can you call me. Need to discuss something.”

These are the most annoying and disruptive emails a person can send. The put the recipient into a state of wonder at the very least and some level of anxiety at the other end of the spectrum. The news to be delivered is no doubt bad, the only question is how bad? 

The call is likely to result in finding out: a major piece of business has been lost, a key employee has resigned, etc. There is no doubt some confidentiality surrounding this issue, hence the absence of any detail in the email.

What follows next is: an attempt to find the emailer’s phone number, followed by an inability to get a voice signal on one’s phone, followed by the realization you have the wrong phone number, followed by getting the person's voicemail. Their voicemail probably suggests emailing them for a faster response.

If you are of strong mind you go about your day. If you are of normal mind, it bugs you on and off throughout the intervening hours: “what is the issue?”

Over the years, I have asked colleagues not to send me these messages. And if they have confidential information, they can still add some details to an email to make it slightly less baffling and anxiety provoking. 

For example, instead of:

“Please call me. Need to speak to you”

One could write:

“Please call me. We have an issue with our client Spacely Sprockets?”

Or:

“Please call me. HR issue involving retaining an employee”

Or you could use Confide, where I’m an advisor, and just send the whole message.

Our communications director at Daily Mail, Sean Wash, and I have an agreement around this. For good press news he messages: "Good news! Call me." and bad news: "OMG call me re: X."

Photo: A.Currell / Flickr