Why do people sound so different in their emails than how they are in person? Are these guys suffering from the multiple personality syndrome?
One of my co-workers who lives on the east coast is always rude in email discussions but he came over for a meeting and in person he is polite, soft spoken and very calm.
I have had professors who are so polite in emails but you go to their office hours and it seems they will send you to detention in a jiffy if you argued with them.
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Ahmadjee Bhaijan, . One can deal with these types, but it is the people who are inconsistent that I find very irritable. If you are an a-hole, at least be consistent.
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Anyone have a sociology/psychology background, I smell grant $ for a study.
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Would you like to start funding it? Im ready. 
Aj – tone matters a lot in e-mails. Happens all the time. People arent as careful at times with emails as they should be.
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ahmadjee thats so true
peoples online personas are very different from how they r in real life in many cases
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I am the same online and offline but sometimes I do get out of line.
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FG - It has to do with writing styles and the personalities involved (including yours). People can’t sound a certain way in writing, writing is two dimensional.
I know here at the University we are told to be very brief, to the point, and not to waste words. They also have business e-mail writing classes 
, if you can believe it. If this is one of the things he was told to do, it would make his writing sound brief and rude. Not that that is a reflection of him. Same for the professor.
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Its difficult to convey facial expressions in a written piece (email, IM etc), which along with body language tells the listener what the intent is. Lately I have seen some work-related emails going back and forth where people are actually putting :-) and other emoticons. On first look, it appears quite odd in an otherwise serious work-related email.
The converse is probably a better option, which is, be polite in your written words so others don't get the wrong impression.
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Online as in gupshup or MSN/IM or any other private website is one thing but when participating in work related professional discussions everyone should at least show his or her true colors or should I say 'consistent colors'.
I can understand those who are not accustomed to email or got used to it at a later age and don't know how to handle it but those who grew up in the internet age, there is no excuse for not knowing the 'online social skills'
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Everytime I write E-mails to my proffs- I always wonder if they're too friendly. They have to be written in a professional manner- and that at times could sound a bit abrupt or rude. So yeah I do understand why classes are given for E-mails in the work place.
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I think its the medium of communication more than the person him/herself.
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the thing is u cant tell a person's personality from the way they write, u just cant
i have this workmate whom everyone perceives to be "chirchRi and bossy and nakChiri" but her emails r perfectly fine so u just cant tell
plus sometimes ppl r really quiet in big groups in real life but they can speak a lot online
it also dependz on the situation
so u just CANNOT get a feel for the person from just the written word, u HAVE to MEET them IN PERSON and talk to them atleast a couple times i think
i have met several guppies in real life and only for 1 of them i can say that i was NOT surprised baakYon ka they were different from what i had expected (not in a bad way but jus different)
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Irem theres a major difference between how we interact with family and friends as opposed to how we interact with others in a more professional environment. And I dont mean just emails.
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dot dot
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^^ Are we learning morse code? AhmadJee Maybe the guy left his caps lock on by mistake.
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^ it was my robot, told him to type two dots ‘.’ for me and this is what he did 
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how one can sound in an e-mail? hearing sounds from a voicemail is ok but you got to be half mad hear sounds coming from the e-mails.
never happened to me.
ps: although I visit some websites where I can hear some sounds coming out...in..out in
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Professional emails demand formalities and caution, one can't write an email like he/she posts on an online discussion board.
You have to be specific and clear about the subject of the mail, always remember the rules taught in Business Communication classes.
Infact in my opinion it's quite an advantage that our feelings and nature is not so obvious by our official emails otherwise the boss would had kicked most of us out ages ago.