1 in 20 people have been reprimanded, or worse, fired, for sending inappropriate email or sending it to the wrong person, according to a survey of 2,000 people in the UK.
Email use was scrutinised in the survey published in the Telegraph UK, mistakes such as “inappropriate jokes, angry messages sent in the heat of the moment, and scathing email replies forwarded to the wrong people” are responsible for the majority of action being taken by employers.
The survey also found how all too common email mistakes such as hitting “reply all” instead of “reply” were amongst employees, with almost one third of respondents admitting to the mistake.
In addition, 13 percent of people surveyed had accidentally sent an email meant to be sent behind a colleague’s back, that insulted them directly to the colleague in question.
Men were more likely to make mistakes with email than women, or at least more comfortable admitting to the behaviour when surveyed, with 20 percent of men and 17 percent of women admitting to mistakes with email.