Writeaway Email Tips
These tips correspond to specific email messages.
Brian White's Email to Jay Chan
Think carefully about this one: It's fine to share your perspective with other students, but how well do you know Brian? And what is appropriate to put in writing? How else can you talk to Brian about Writeaway...and maybe help him out?
Brian White's Job Inquiry
Doesn’t this sound familiar? This doesn’t have to be answered immediately, but you will probably want to respond within 24 hours (You know how impatient those college students are!). You can handle this in a number of ways:
Tell Brian that you’re not hiring or that his credentials aren’t what you’re looking for right now (or something like that).
Pass Brian’s email along to Ron Harrison, the HR Director, for review and consideration. If you do this, you might want to copy Brian and—either within this email or separately—let him know that you passed along his request. You may or may not give Ron’s name to Brian. What are the consequences of each?
For discussion: What did you think of Brian’s sending this message “High Priority”?
Cara Currigan's Email
Read this one carefully. Consider:
What have you been “selected” to do?
What is the timeframe for your response?
What is the deadline for the proposal?
Diana Chavez's Email re: Missed Conference Call
This email—and the one from Ian Mendoza—are probably the most important emails you have received. Certainly, you will want to make this a priority and respond immediately. The question is, how do you best respond?
Of course, you want to maintain the relationship. Let’s assume that you messed up: You missed the call. You don’t want to lie, so what do you say? Some considerations are:
How can you re-instill Diana’s confidence in you?
Will you respond to this by email, phone call, and/or a visit?
How much—if any—of an excuse do you give? How can you address what Diana refers to as the “bigger issue”?
What, if anything, would you communicate to Bill?
Sometimes, it’s a good idea to give your manager a heads-up, in case he or she hears about a situation (It’s better to hear about it from you first). In this case, would you communicate anything to Ian now—or at some other time?
Diana Chavez's Email re: Contact Info
One consideration here is what time this email was written and when you responded to Diana about missing the morning conference call. If you haven’t yet responded to Diana, you should!
As for your home phone number…that’s up to you. Maybe a cell number is more appropriate? But don’t miss her underlying message—how will you address this?
Ian Mendoza's Email
The tone of this email is generally *nice,* but it’s clear that he’s waiting for something from you and is disappointed that he hasn’t received it. As you respond to this email—which you’ll want to do quickly!—consider:
What can you write that will help regain Ian’s confidence in you, particularly to meet the upcoming deadline?
What other emails do you have that might help you with this work for Ian (e.g., from Jay)? Is the information that Jay sent you sufficient? If not, how can you request more from Jay?
Janet Dewey's Email
This is a nice gesture from a senior manager. As you think about how to respond, you might consider:
What do you think is an appropriate response? Consider the tone and approximate length of her email.
Ideally, what would Janet want to hear from you? If you were unhappy with the job so far, would you tell her?
Within what timeframe should you respond to Janet? Where do you prioritize this email among the others you’ve received?
What do you expect in return? Something would be nice but don’t expect anything too personalized, unless you have a strong working relationship with her.
Jay Chan's "Need Work" Email
Hey, we’ve all been there. This isn’t exactly a burning priority, but—as you know!—keeping interns happy is important. What ideas do you have for Jay? And how can you make sure he still feels the love?
Jay Chan's ADA Email
Here’s the answer you wanted for Ian Mendoza. Did you find it before responding to your boss?
Still, the answer is a little light and, if you haven’t already noticed, Jay has time on his hands, so perhaps he could at least give you a reference for this quoted source—and maybe provide some more depth as well?
Marc Cohen's Email
Clearly, Marc is pressuring you to increase the job offer. You have a few options here:
You might feel that his timeframe and request are unreasonable, in which case, you have no obligation to make a counteroffer. Even so, you probably want to maintain a good relationship with the applicant, so what kind of email could you send that would deny his request, but still wish him luck, etc., and maybe keep the door open for working together in the future (you never know)?
You still might think he’s the best candidate and want him onboard. If so, you can either:
- Make a counteroffer yourself.
- Seek approval for a counteroffer (which would be typical in an organization). Think about approaching either Ian Mendoza (your boss) or Ron Harrison (the HR manager) for advice and/or approval.
Either way, consider stretching Marc’s deadline. Many managers would feel that Marc’s approach is aggressive: The deadline he imposes is his, not necessarily yours.
Margaret Bryant’s Email re: Updated Bio
This appears to be a simple request; a good guideline to follow is, if you can reply to an email in a few seconds, just do it. Don’t put it off to create more work later. You can deal with this in a few ways:
Respond directly to Margaret with your imaginary updated bio attached.
Delegate this to Jay (your intern). You could, for example, give him updates, and ask him to send an email to Margaret. This may seem like *make work* because you can probably as easily sent this email directly to Margaret. So, you may, instead…
Assume that Jay has updated information. In this case, you might just forward the email to him with a brief request to please forward your schedule to Margaret by the requested time—as long as you trust Jay to do this.
Margaret Bryant’s Email re: Vacations
This appears to be a simple request; a good guideline to follow is, if you can reply to an email in a few seconds, just do it. Don’t put it off to create more work later. You can deal with this in a few ways:
Respond directly to Margaret with your plans.
Delegate this to Jay (your intern). You could, for example, give him the dates of your planned vacation, and ask him to send an email to Margaret. This may seem like *make work* because you can probably as easily sent this email directly to Margaret. So, you may, instead…
Assume that Jay knows your vacation plans. In this case, you might just forward the email to him with a brief request to please forward your schedule to Margaret by the requested time—as long as you trust Jay to do this.
Ron Harrison's "Confidential" Email
Uh oh. This typically isn’t good news. Well, you should probably just focus on the appointment time and not worry about it until you hear the facts. What are the potential consequences of discussing the situation over email?
Ron Harrison’s “Your Candidate” Email
If you haven’t already, this email tells you that you should bring Ron, the HR manager, in the loop. At this point, you’ll need to either tell Ron how you handled Marc’s request or—better yet—if you read this email before responding to Marc, you may ask for Ron’s advice.
Sis's "Last Email" re: ADA
Good thing you opened this one! This may be helpful for Ian’s request. But do you have time to sort through this? Hmm....who else might have some free time?
Sis's Email re: Birthday
You have only a half-hour to get through all of your work emails, and this one is clearly personal. On the other hand, it sounds like you have to do something for your mother’s birthday, and your sister is willing to take some responsibility for it. Maybe name a restaurant and a time and be done with it? And how about planning a bit better in the future?
Sis’s 2nd and 3rd Emails (biking and sofa)
Your sister is getting annoying. You may want to discourage her from sending emails to work.
