Not only is Friday synonymous with freedom, it also rhymes with casual. Well, not literally… but for my company at least, we have “Casual Friday,” when jeans and tennis shoes are acceptable versus our standard business casual code. Other companies, however, are taking casual Friday to new extremes.

Don’t worry, this won’t be yet another post about dressing for the workplace – instead, it’s yet another post about e-mail; but with a twist.

E-mail is singlehandedly taking over the workplace. It’s replacing phone calls, face time and personality – and some professionals aren’t having it. An article by USA Today says some companies are instituting e-mail-free Fridays, in which e-mail isn’t forbidden; but people are encouraged to use the phone or better yet, meet face-to-face with clients and co-workers. The goal is to increase communication and replenish the personal touch that is sometimes lost when you click “send.”

Other organizations are declaring “e-mail bankruptcy.” In other words, employees are deleting or archiving their entire inbox, based on the premise that if a worker hasn’t read the e-mail yet, she probably won’t, and if the e-mail was that important, she’ll hear from her contact again. (Sounds scary if you ask me!)

E-mail overload is caused by the volume of messages sent around the world. Each day, about 39.7 billion person-to-person e-mails, 17.1 billion automated alerts and 40.5 billion pieces of spam (unsolicited commercial e-mail) are sent worldwide, according to researcher IDC.

I actually took an e-mail etiquette course yesterday through my company and learned a few valuable tips I’d like to share:

1. “If you send an effective e-mail, not only will you receive effective e-mail in return, you will receive FEWER e-mails.”
   
2. If you’re sending an e-mail TO someone, he or she is your intended audience and you expect them to do something. If you someone is CC-ed (carbon copy), they are receiving the e-mail as an FYI. The BC (blind copy) function means BE CAREFUL!
3. Use this acronym before you SEND an e-mail:

• Simple
• Effective
• Necessary
• Done

Click here for more articles about e-mail at work.