Chris Alexander

On Engineering

E-Mail Rage

17th November, 2009

I don’t know if this has ever happened to you, but it happened to me for the first time recently and I don’t think I really want it to happen again.

I’m going to call it “e-mail rage”, but I suppose it may come under many names, depending on who discovered it. I’ve managed to cool off a little bit, but none the less I am still pretty peeved - hence why it is a rage.

A few days ago I was asked to choose from a list of items on a website. So I went to the website, chose from the list, and sent my response back.

What followed was a couple of e-mails telling me that I had chose incorrectly and basically treating me like an incompetent idiot for being unable to perform this seemingly simple action.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like being like an incompetent idiot in any way, particularly over e-mail, and from a source that I definitely would not expect it from. There has clearly been a misunderstanding, is it really so hard to clarify where I should be choosing from?

Anyway the e-mails angered me so much I am yet to reply, as every time I go to I get angry again and everything I write comes out in a way I would definitely not consider sending via e-mail. Maybe the other person should have considered this first too.