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A Question of E-mail Etiquette?
Aug. 17th, 2009 10:35 amRecently we were having a barbecue at lunchtime. We had invited several people, with a deadline for responses several days ahead.
So it was somewhat surprising to find e-mail at midnight the night before the barbecue informing us that someone else would be coming. No apologies for the late response, no question of whether this was possible or not, just a note telling us that they would be there.
( musing about the assumptions )
The sad part is that this kind of behavior is a tragedy of the commons situation -- when one person does it and gets away with it, others are encouraged to imitate them, and soon the common pasture (or BBQ?) has vanished. Which is not good.
How do I explain this to the youngsters? Especially the youngsters who believe that cell phones and email and other instant media entitle them to act this way?
So it was somewhat surprising to find e-mail at midnight the night before the barbecue informing us that someone else would be coming. No apologies for the late response, no question of whether this was possible or not, just a note telling us that they would be there.
( musing about the assumptions )
The sad part is that this kind of behavior is a tragedy of the commons situation -- when one person does it and gets away with it, others are encouraged to imitate them, and soon the common pasture (or BBQ?) has vanished. Which is not good.
How do I explain this to the youngsters? Especially the youngsters who believe that cell phones and email and other instant media entitle them to act this way?
