[2006alum]

Those can turn into real ho1y he11 moments.  E-mail can be passive-aggressive.

Totally agree. I find a 5-minute phone call can often save 1-2 hours of time writing emails, misunderstanding each other, causing unnecessary tension, etc. The only time I prefer emails is for one-on-one communication with superiors or inferiors where a documented paper trail can be useful. I can't tell you how many times over the years that I've had a superior say, "Why didn't you do X?," and I've been able to follow up with an email forward of the earlier (almost always forgotten) email exchange in which they said, "DO NOT DO X." As I've moved up the food chain, it's also been nice to reply to my prior email (from weeks ago) with a friendly, "How's it coming on thing X I just showed you I asked you to do three weeks ago?" 

As Jerry Seinfeld said "e-mail is the ultimate insult.  It says 'I don't want to see you, I don't want to hear from you and your opinion is completely unimportant.  But I want you to listen to every word I say."

OTOH, "'I don't want to see you, I don't want to hear from you and your opinion is completely unimportant.  But I want you to listen to every word I say" probably could apply to many of the posts in this forum, mine included! ;)

[2006alum]

Those can turn into real ho1y he11 moments.  E-mail can be passive-aggressive.

Totally agree. I find a 5-minute phone call can often save 1-2 hours of time writing emails, misunderstanding each other, causing unnecessary tension, etc. The only time I prefer emails is for one-on-one communication with superiors or inferiors where a documented paper trail can be useful. I can't tell you how many times over the years that I've had a superior say, "Why didn't you do X?," and I've been able to follow up with an email forward of the earlier (almost always forgotten) email exchange in which they said, "DO NOT DO X." As I've moved up the food chain, it's also been nice to reply to my prior email (from weeks ago) with a friendly, "How's it coming on thing X I just showed you I asked you to do three weeks ago?" 

As Jerry Seinfeld said "e-mail is the ultimate insult.  It says 'I don't want to see you, I don't want to hear from you and your opinion is completely unimportant.  But I want you to listen to every word I say."

OTOH, "'I don't want to see you, I don't want to hear from you and your opinion is completely unimportant.  But I want you to listen to every word I say" probably could apply to many of the posts in this forum, mine included! ;)