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The
alphabet soup of e-mails
During a recent
workshop, I gave the participants an opportunity to vent their
pet peeves regarding e-mails. One manager said he was not
comfortable with staff members including personal remarks
in their messages. He didn’t consider it professional,
and it could be construed as harassment.
The other participants
looked blank until someone figured out what he was talking
about. LOL. LOL is cyber shorthand for laughing out loud.
Unfortunately, the manager was not aware of this and assumed
he was being sent lots of love.
You may have seen
similar abbreviations: ROTL (rolling on the floor laughing),
LMAO (laughing my, er, ankles off). These notations are used
to convey laughter and anger, approval and disapproval, love
and hate — and everything in between — with just
a few quick keystrokes.
However,
more and more people are complaining about them. As my manager
did, the shorthand may be misinterpreted. In other instances,
readers say these abbreviations make the writer look lazy,
or they create an unprofessional image.
Unless
you know that the recipient is really into it, I would not
use shorthand for business e-mails. Keep it for instant or
text messaging.
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