Since it is in the news are you surprised that people would say negative things in an email? I figured out early on that email should only state non-controversial generally positive things about people or groups.
Any email I send could be turned into a billboard on the NJ Turnpike and it would not concern me.
When I have something serious the email usually says call me or come see me.
I have a job now that’s not conducive for a call or in-person meeting. My current company has a culture of having a lo of meetings. To get on my calendar could take days if not weeks. I tell most people to just email me if they really want my attention to something. I could read it when I have time (often during those endless meetings) and respond accordingly. I try not to forward emails without the original poster(s).
Many employers now have very specific email policies. Years ago, my H continually tried to impress his fellow senior executives of the importance of not disclosing certain information in email. Anything in an email is there permanently, and much to the chagrin of many.
I handle employment issues from the legal side for a major corporation with a great culture. I could write a book about the stupid things people say in email or mistakes with forwarding chains that shouldn’t have been forwarded or mis-addressing emails.
I had a couple instances in my 20’s where I mistakenly sent an email to the wrong recipient, and they happened to be an external customer. Ever since then I never say anything controversial in email. Even when I’m frustrated and want to use a harsh tone, I’ll type the email but let it sit for a few hours before revisiting and toning it down. For serious discussions on delicate subjects I pick up the phone.
A funny but good unintended side-effect is that many colleagues over the years have praised my calm and diplomatic tone in my emails to customers when we’re working on resolving contentious issues and tempers are high. In woodworking there’s an adage: “Measure twice cut once.” With email I: “Write twice send once.”
^^^ Adding to the above, even for internal emails when we’re discussing customers, I use very diplomatic language. You never now when one of your colleagues is going to inadvertently forward the whole email chain to a customer! Or to wikileaks. :))
As a litigation attorney, I see emails that should never have been written every single day. These are emails that the authors thought would never ever see the light of day. People don’t realize that even if they did nothing whatsoever wrong and even if they are not actually a party to a lawsuit, they may still have to turn over their emails if they are potentially relevant to someone else’s lawsuit. People are often shocked at depositions when they are confronted with some particularly embarassing email they wrote. And with respect to work emails, employees emails are often collected and turned over in litigation without the employee’s knowledge or consent.
I am very cautious in how I write my own emails.
In terms of business emails…less is more. Anything you wrote can be subject to a FOI request. We had inservice presentations on use of email at work. Very important.
Have you ever gone ‘dumpster diving’ into some of your emails from a decade ago? I have. 
Best to stay factual, and even then - less is more.
In the defense of gen-x-ers and boomers I think some people used to think of emails as closer to conversations and less like letters. But clearly they are not!
Where is all this digital clutter going to wind up?
Absolutely that is the standard everyone should uphold. And similarly, when I was working, I used to say I use the computer and internet as if my boss was looking over my shoulder. So any website I was surfing, even during “down time” had to meet that standard.
I worked for a government agency. We were told not to write anything we wouldn’t want to see on the front page of the Washington Post. We were told we could use our government email accounts (and computers) for incidental personal use, such as sending a note to a child’s teacher asking for a meeting or contacting a child or spouse BUT that anything on the agency computer/email account was open to review or search by a monitor or FOIA request. We had government Blackberries that we could use for personal calls or texts or emails, but same rules. We had encoding devices for confidential info (which we never used).
EVERYONE had two or more phones, a Blackberry and a personal phone. Things like FB were blocked from government computers but you could use your phone at your desk.
Even if I was on my own yahoo account, I would not send an email from my office computer that said my boss was a jerk or that my co-worker was an idiot. I was very careful about anything I sent to a .gov account, even to my boss who was a personal friend (and I would talk to her about the idiots or send something to a personal account or phone number, but not to the blackberry or email.
And then there is the rude use of bcc. I had a difference of opinion with an acquaintenance, who I know from our volunteer work for a non-profit organization. She followed up with an email to me. I wanted to give a polite, thoughtful reply, so I mentioned having received the email to my DH. It turns out he received the same email because he was bcc’d on the email! It left me wondering who else was bcc’d. So in my email response to her, I just went ahead and copied DH, not bcc.
I only use bcc for a mass email so i don’t share people’s emails across a wide distribution list.
sending a bcc to the addressee’s spouse seems kind of dumb. 
Not sure where I got this idea, but I always thought it was standard practice (or courtesy) to cc anyone mentioned in an email. So if I send an email to Joe and somewhere in the email I mention Harry’s name in any context no matter how superficial, I should cc Harry. Is that standard or did I dream that up?
Never heard that one (about cc’ing someone mentioned in an email). I guess it makes sense if you are volunteering Harry for a project or telling Joe to look up your old friend Harry when he’s in London or something. But just a passing mention? Nah.
Yesterday my D16 got an email from her prof addressed to another student in her class. She wrote back and asked if he intended to send it to her or the other student. His response, “I’m so sorry. Yes, I meant to send it to _____. Now I know how Hillary feels.”
^hardly - one misdirected email isn’t the problem
Over years, I’ve had the (mis)fortune of having phone numbers similar to the Library of Congress, a local pharmacy, and a taxi company. (Not all the same number). People leave a lot of personal info on answering machines that they probably shouldn’t.
An “Electronic tattoo” is what e-mail or any other internet posting is. It’ll be there forever. Careful what you write.
I follow the “wait until tomorrow” guidelines when responding (maybe angrily) to something but go one step further and don’t address it to anyone. That is the last step.
Keeps it from being sent accidentally before I’ve really considered my words. You never know who it will be forwarded to. Saved me more than once from myself.
" Not sure where I got this idea, but I always thought it was standard practice (or courtesy) to cc anyone mentioned in an email. So if I send an email to Joe and somewhere in the email I mention Harry’s name in any context no matter how superficial, I should cc Harry. Is that standard or did I dream that up?"
Maybe in a social setting, but I don’t think that’s really a rule in a business setting. I generally do cc people if I mention them, but not always depending on context.
A couple examples - “Hey Mike, John says you need to call the customer and explain how the whatsis works”: yes, copy John. “Hey Mike, I’ve worked with John on this before and he told me the policy on whatsis upgrades is the same as for other products”: no need to copy John. My internal check is this: John is swamped with a bazillion emails every day, so is this one relevant enough that he’d want to read it?
I once had a person send an extremely nasty email about me to me, instead of the intended recipient. I kept it between us. Others in that organization, including the sender, would have run to “the authorities” to complain and shame her.
I subsequent wished that I had.
watch what you text too!
and when someone sends you text like
“tom1944 is a jerk” and I respond yep he sure is.
you make up with the other person and they say zobroward thinks you are a jerk look at this text.
I never respond to nasty texts about a co worker being a jerk or dumb etc…