(US History post in progress–y’all said such thoughtful things, I figure it needs a thoughtful response. In the meantime, something else.)
I first started this by saying something like “is it completely unreasonable of me to not want to do business with people who can’t write an adequate or competent email?” but I changed my mind about that phrasing. I don’t actually think it’s that unreasonable, and I don’t see why I should pretend just for the sake of an empty rhetorical question.
But good lord, people, how hard is it to write a basic email? I’m not talking about being fussy with typos. I’m talking about a specific wedding-related vendor who I’ve been communicating with whose emails are just, gah, I mean really. She’ll write half a sentence (the middle half) all in caps, changing case mid-word. Punctuation is used irregularly, if at all, and line breaks appear at intervals that bear no relation to the ends of sentences. Much of the communication is sentence fragments and texting-abbreviations, and you know, I don’t actually care if she -is- sending all of this from her Blackberry, it’s still professional communication and I expect a baseline level of professional behavior. Oh, and on top of it, the email address she uses for this business communication is a goofy personal nickname.
At this point, I’m cringing whenever I see email from her in my inbox. This is not a feeling that is going to lead to my wanting to give her a large sum of money in exchange for her participation in my wedding. (And on top of that, she’s got a kind of hard-sell style, multiple emails that are all “you shd book asap, pls let me have yr cELL SO I CAN followupwith you”, which makes me even less interested.) No, this isn’t an automatic “no” and it’s probably not going to be the primary deciding factor, but I can’t shake the feeling that it’s a strong secondary factor.
And I kind of did think that I might be being unreasonable about not wanting to do business with someone who can’t write business emails, but then I realized that she’s the only one. I’ve been in email contact with a whole lot of different vendors in different fields (many of them in her field!) and she’s the only one that’s like this. It’s not like I’ve set my bar really high, you know? Maybe that’s a positive note to end on, then, that despite dire warnings about The End of Grammar As We Know It, my experience suggests that competent and professional writing isn’t actually dead yet. So that’s something.
Posted Friday, January 8th, 2010 at 9:41 am. Filed under: Uncategorized.
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No, seriously. This is money you’re talking about, and this is a danger sign. As is hassling you to make it easier for her to hassle you, for that matter. You want vendors who are going to reduce your stress, not add to it, right? And I’m sure if she were otherwise projecting an aura of competence, confidence and reliability, you wouldn’t be posting this.
It’s not unreasonable at all. If she can’t write professionally, she’s not professional, and you don’t have to support her. Natural selection of competent wedding vendors!
(Unrelatedly, I just noticed your About Me still has you in Berkeley.)
Ditto above.
Additionally: there may be people on the planet for whom this style of communication, this robust and carefree informality of language and need for constant personal contact via cell, would be soothing or invigorating.
So she should go be their wedding vendor.