Professional Tech Etiquette

Imagine coming into the office and finding that your current work has gone missing. Your valuable data has been completely disorganized and all your important files have been put in the trash. What would you do?

Technology offers a very powerful communication platform where you can share ideas and work collectively to make your business a success. For those reasons we have put together a few etiquette tips to help you be the best teammate possible when sending emails or sharing folders. These can potentially impact both you and your co-worker’s productivity.

EMAILS

Keep emails and subject lines concise and to the point. If you find yourself four paragraphs in and still haven’t gotten to your point or asked your question, it’s time to pick up the phone.

Subject lines, keep them short, useful and specific! “Do you have a minute to chat?” is too vague and doesn’t really explain the contents of the email. Instead try, “Let’s meet to discuss the new BDR solution and pricing.” Use words that people would reasonably search for. Instead of “Please review the attached,” include what they are reviewing: “Business Tech Etiquette Tips blog draft for review.”

Compress your files, please. There is nothing more irritating than receiving an email that takes 10 minutes or more to load because of a 50 MB attachment. Compress files before you hit send or use a cloud-based storage solution that then gives them a shareable link to download directly instead of through email. For example, consider using OneDrive, Google Drive, or Dropbox.

SHARED FOLDERS

Maintain accountability. Whether working online or on-premise, there needs to be accountability. Everyone needs to be made aware that sometimes there will be many individuals working out of the same project. Because of that, it is always important to communicate all changes made to any folders or files that are being shared.

Ask before you delete! You might have a shared folder you are not using any longer. Before you decide to go and delete that folder or individual files please remember that you are deleting this file from everyone else. This is especially important if you are using in a cloud hosted platform.

Name Folders after Subjects, not People. Try and be as specific as you can be when naming a file or a folder. What is the main subject of this shared folder? Is it a project? Maybe a new presentation? Name shared folders after what you are going to do with them. To avoid confusion, it’s best to have a naming convention for your folders that everyone in the business uses.

Do you remember the golden rule? “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” The same can apply with email and shared folders within your office. Always consider your colleagues and coworkers and how that email you send or changes to a shared folder may impact the business.