By Dan Bobinski
Director, The Center for Workplace Excellence

Most of the people who’ve worked for me over the years have appreciated the fact that I enjoy laughing at the various problems that inevitably creep up each day. After all, one can get upset about problems, but what good does that do?

Unfortunately, trying to incorporate wit and humor in email often backfires. There’s been a ton already written about this, but after sending someone into a tailspin yesterday while trying in inject a bit of humor, I’m reminded that it would be wise for me to heed my own advice.

Depending on who is conducting the research, numbers will vary, but I tend to buy into the following numbers with regard to communication:

Body Language: 67 %
Voice Tone:     25%
Word Choices: 7%
                - - - - - 
Total:             100%

Out of all the studies I’ve seen measuring the impact of these three components, never have I seen word choices higher than 20%. So even if we were very forgiving in the various studies, and offered up a 20% or even a 25% Word Choice factor, that means 75% of true communication (at best) is missing from our email messages – and yes, even blog posts!!

OUCH!!

Emoticons help, but they don’t make up nearly as much as the subtle movement of your eyes or the corners of your mouth to indicate you’re joking about something.

So – follow Dan as he follows his own advice — Minimize the humor you put in your email unless you are very familiar with the person who’s receiving it …. And even then, you need to exercise caution and somehow communicate that your humor is indeed just that.

Why? Because backtracking to rectify a misinterpretation is NO fun at all!!

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Filed in Technology, Work, Internet, Workplace, Corporate Culture