It has been a week. We are all busy and have been busy for some time now and I am noticing some short tempers around the dealership. I hear it in interactions between us, and I particularly see it in emails that are shared with me. It is easy to have an email come off as caustic and condescending and we all need to be careful how we construct them so as to convey the message we intend but not offend or anger the recipient. One of the unpleasant aspects of my job is dealing with legal issues between customers, employees or vendors and what I realize is that our legal system makes it living off deciphering the intent behind words. A phrase constructed in one way means one thing and the same phrase constructed another way means something completely different and we sometimes spend large sums of money and time trying to make sense of it all so we need to choose our words very carefully.
I don’t normally preach to you about things, but this time I have some suggestions for your correspondence with one another. Never ever write an email in anger, or if you do, write it then delete and wait till you calm down and write the better one. Stick to the facts, don’t insert your interpretations of another’s actions unless you know them for a fact. Be nice, treat each other in writing the same way I want you to treat each other in person, with Courtesy, Dignity and Respect and the same way you want to be treated. Be brief and get to the point, we are all busy and lastly, check your grammar and spelling, it reflects directly back at you.
Happy writing everyone.
Ed
