Short is good, right? So why do Millennials need to learn these 15 lessons in communicating at work?

Communications styles have been exploded right under our noses – as if you haven’t noticed.

Millennials are the undisputed leaders of short messaging (I live with two of them). They text. They tweet. They Insta-something. They express feelings with dinky little faces.

Hemingway first told us that short is good, right? And Apple followed suit with a “keep it simple” campaign. And it works – especially in today’s so crowded digital information world.

However, as Millennials enter the workplace, they are discovering that they're missing an essential business skill — email etiquette.  

Denise Dudley, trainer, business consultant, and author of Work It! Get In, Get Noticed, Get Promoted has some very useful advice for young people entering the business world – which also acts as a brilliant reminder for the more mature among us. I took note of these 15 tips and have rethought every single exchange I’ve engaged in today.

15 tips on email etiquette:

1. Reply in 24 hours or less. 
2. Begin with a salutation. 
3. Introduce yourself. 
4. Show the topic in the subject line. 
5. Avoid joking and sarcasm. 
6. Make sure grammar, spelling, and everything else is perfect. 
7. Don’t use text lingo. 
8. Avoid all caps. 
9. Be careful what you write. 
10. Close with a sign-off.  
11. Take 5 to review your message before hitting “send.” 
12. Don’t overuse “Reply All.” 
13. Keep it short.  
14. Don’t send negative messages via email. 
15. Keep a thread. 

It’s brilliant, right? Certainly made me think.

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For more information on Denise see here.