Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Could we do this...

I always get this kind of work-related emails:

Dear W,
A couple of questions:
1. Can we look at the backtest to ...
2. Can we also look at ...
Let me know if you have any questions.
Thx,
M

Or

Dear W,
Could we do the following
1...
2...
Rgds,
M

Or

W,
Can we please cross check ...
Rgds,
P

Or

W,
We need to optimise ... and let us see what comes out.
Rgds,
P

Notice a pattern?
These are all emails requesting me to do some work, but instead of:
"Please work on this" or "Will you do this for me"
its always:
"Can we", "Could we", "Let us" etc.
and its not even "Can YOU", its always "we" or "us". When in fact its just ME.

Sometimes I just wish I could just reply
"Yes, WE can." or "Yup, I agree, WE should do it." and leave it at that. Based on syntax, that isn't a real work request, is it? Besides, if its a "we", its inclusive of the person who sent the email right? That means the responsibility also lies with the sender, right?

They make it sound like they're contributing something, but they're not.

How can I make it sound like they are not doing anything, I'm doing everything, and they're making it sound like "WE" are sharing the work?

Sigh...

1 comment:

Wallace said...

I got something that works.. In a reply email, replace all "I" and "you" by "we". The email becomes very awkward sounding, but thats the point =D.

Eg.
"We did this as we suggested. If we change this, as we're sure we all know, its going to result in this, which we don't want."