Your e-mail says more than you realise:

This column is for employers and employees. It is not a "how-to" column, but rather basic advice on how to prevent you from embarrassing yourself and/or your company at some point in the near future.

Why do you need e-mail etiquette? Every company needs to implement etiquette rules for at least two reasons - professionalism and protection from liability.

1. Professionalism Use proper language in your e-mail. This will convey a professional image of your company.

2. Protection from liability Employee awareness of e-mail risks will protect your company from costly law- suits. Companies in the United States and United Kingdom have suffered as a result of acts committed from workstation com-puters. We should learn from their experiences.

How do you enforce e-mail etiquette?

The first step is to create a written e-mail policy. This e-mail policy should include all the Dos and Don'ts concerning the use of the company's e-mail system and should be distributed to all employees. Secondly, employees must be trained to fully understand the importance of e-mail etiquette.

Finally, implementation of the rules can be monitored by using e-mail management software and e-mail response tools. If you send it from the office, it comes from the office Personal e-mail sent from the office, using your work-assigned e-mail address, are regarded as official company communications regardless of contents and/or addressee.

This could possibly expose you, and your company to unnecessary risk, including lawsuits. Be careful what you do! Do not copy a message or attachment without permission

If you did not get permission, Do Not copy a message or an attachment belonging to another user, you might be infringing on copyright laws.

Do not use e-mail to discuss confidential information Sending an e-mail is like sending a postcard - strangers have access. If you don't want your e-mail to be displayed on a bulletin board, don't send it. We all know someone who is a "techno-peasant" who will accidentally forward a message to the "wrong" person. Moreover, making libellous, sexist or racially discriminating comments in e-mail, even if they are meant to be a joke, can have serious legal implications.

Don't forward virus hoaxes and chain letters If you receive an e-mail message warning you of a new unstoppable virus that will immediately delete everything from your computer, this is most probably a hoax. By forwarding hoaxes you use valuable bandwidth and sometimes virus hoaxes contain the viruses themselves, by attaching a so-called file that will stop the dangerous virus.

The same goes for chain letters that promise incredible riches or ask your help for a charitable cause. Even if the content seems to be bona fide, the senders usually are not.

Since it is sometimes impossible to find out whether a chain letter or virus notice is real or not, the best place for it is the Recycle Bin. What to check if it is a hoax or not? Log on to http://urbanlegends.about.com, they can often help.

To, Cc and Bcc or Not We have three choices for addressing an e-mail, "To", "Cc" and "Bcc" fields. This should be fairly straightforward but many people end up in trouble.

First, there are the users who have no idea that the "Cc" exists. Every address is listed in the "To" even if the e-mail is only directed to one person. In cases such as this, the receivers are often not clear as to who should take action so either they all do something or they all do nothing. Secondly, there are users who feel that every e-mail should be copied to their entire address book whether it is relevant to everyone or not.

Lastly, there are users who never read the names of the people who receive a copy of an e-mail. They are the "Did you see this?" Crowd. For example, person X sends an e-mail to persons A, B and C. C immediately forwards it to A and B with the question "Did you see this?" Not bothering to notice that X already sent A and B copies.

Here is a rough guide on how to use the address fields: For the people you are addressing directly, put their addresses in the "To" field. For the people you are addressing indirectly, the FYI-ers, put their addresses in the "Cc" field. Please, copy only those who need to be copied; not your entire universe of contacts.

The addressees in the "Bcc" are like "Cc" except that those in the "To" and "Cc" fields do not know that the addresses in the "Bcc" are included in the conversation. They are blind to the 'Bcc' addresses. As you can imagine, use of the 'Bcc' is somewhat unethical and therefore its use is discouraged.

Reply To All

The "Reply to All" button is one that can generate tons of unnecessary e-mail. For example, if you send 12 people e-mail asking if they are available at a certain time for a meeting you should get 12 replies. However, if each person hits the "Reply to All" button not only will you get 12 replies, but so does everyone else for a total of 144 messages! The "Reply to All" button should be used with thought and careful consideration. More next week.

Dr Semaj is a frequent facilitator for Strategic Planning Retreats, Cultural Alignment and Organisational Restructuring. He conducts Staff Selection and Development Programmes for different business sectors across the Caribbean.