[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

I have been writing detailed e-mails and typed letters to business people. Many will not even give me the courtesy of a reply.

Writing skills are not the only thing missing from corporate America. Common courtesy is gone, too.

I believe it is about attention span. The average American seems to have the attention span of a five-year-old.

[RushLake]

"I have been writing detailed e-mails and typed letters to business people. Many will not even give me the courtesy of a reply. Writing skills are not the only thing missing from corporate America. Common courtesy is gone, too."

I experienced the same thing during my glorious career in big business. I think its a combination of time and fear of being nailed down to something in writing. I finally came to the conclusion that email is a short sweet and to the point medium, not necessarily a vehicle for detailed communications. I found the phone to be more effective when there was a need for detailed conversation. Black writing on white background can become overwhelming, and can also mislead the writer's intent because you can't hear him speak. I also believe that voice inflections go a long way toward establishing a good working relationship. I used to receive and take part in these long strings of email with ccs to the world which then took on tangential lives of their own and could often be misconstrued or supportive of someone's negative agenda.

I would follow the phone conversation if necessary with a short sweet and to the point email only to the person I talked with. Sure helped avoid lots of acrimony and confusion.

Another thing I noticed is that as the company I worked for became more diverse, lower communications skill sets came into play. I had one africanhyphenamerican who worked for me who proudly proclaimed to anyone who would listen that he "be havin' fo degrees" all of which, apparently, were related to the ebonics language.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

... Common courtesy is gone, too....

Sadly so.

[Redleg Duke]

A rule of thumb I have is that I follow-up my important emails with telephone calls. Too many times I have had my superiors laughingly tell me that they just ignore emails.

[ccmovrwc]

With respect to your point about frequently not receiving the courtesy of a reply, my company actually encourages that rudeness. I work for a large insurance company and probably about once per quarter we are told that we should NOT reply to an email with an "okay" or "thanks," because each email we send costs the company a certain number of pennies. Isn't that nice?

[banjo joe]

Writing skills are not the only thing missing from corporate America. Common courtesy is gone, too.

I'm tired of corporate BS-speak.