It seems the more ways they invent for us to communicate, the worse we become at it.

Email is pretty old-school these days (and I believe smart companies will replace it, internally at least, with a social communications chat-type of format), but I am still constantly amazed and frustrated by the sloppy way many people use it.

Most days I get 100 plus emails, and even discounting the ‘spammy’ ones, about half of those need not have come to me at all.

Meet six “e-mail e-diots”, who need to learn the error of their ways. I am pretty sure you know them already!

• “The CC King” - This is the guy who copies in everyone, on everything. No matter how trivial, we all get the email. Or maybe it’s not trivial, but it’s just nothing to do with us. We still get the email. Why does he do it? Maybe to ‘cover all bases’, to show how busy or smart he is, or just a bad habit. Who knows? But please, just stop doing it! Think about the recipients you add before you press ‘send’. Do they need to know? Will they care? Are you just annoying people?

• “Mr. Always-Reply” - These guys are irritating. It’s like they have to have the last word. Via email. So no matter that the communication is complete. Everything clear. They will still send out one more email. Maybe just with a few words, saying nothing or repeating what has already been confirmed. Or you send out a group email with a piece of standard information. No reply needed. But they reply anyway, often repeating what was in your email, or just offering gratuitous, irrelevant comment on what you said!

• “The Reply-All Princess” - You send an email to a group of people. Some reply if it affects them. She replies to everyone telling them it does not affect her! Then another ‘Reply-all’ loony copies everyone in on his inane reply, which might be about going to the pub on Friday. Then she copies all 50 people in, confirming a time for the rendezvous. Then he presses ‘Reply-all’ asking if she can make it half an hour later…. FFS!

• “The CC-Clown” - This person does not understand confidentiality. There is a BCC option in email, which goes unused by the Clown, and every single email address of 30 strangers are circulated for the world to see. And then the spam begins… Keep my address private… please!

• “The Text-Message’er” – Text message lingo used in an email, is bordering on a crime. Please don’t email me saying CUL8R, and if you dare LOL me, I will scream.

• “The Smiley-Face Over-doer” – This person seems to think it’s commonplace to put a smiley face or a frown in every business-related email communication. I don’t know about you, but I find this irritating. There’s a time and a place for these and communicating your cute little “emoticons” in every email is unnecessary.

So what do you think? Are there any email habits that drive you crazy? Please share in the comments section, and help me fight the good fight against the army of email e-diots clogging up our inboxes.

More reading:

Emails: WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING?
Twitter for Business: 18 things you should NOT do
13 things that really annoy people on LinkedIn

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