What’s the quickest way to lose respect in the workplace?

I was at McDonald’s today, waiting for my order, when I noticed at the end of the counter a sign-up sheet for employees. I’m not sure what the employees were to sign up for, as my eyes immediately found, in big 22-point bold print, the word “REQIUERED.” I no longer cared what the employees were required to do. When my food was brought to me, I pointed to the sign and told the employee the word was misspelled and that didn’t make management look very smart. I got a knowing smirk from the employee, silently telling me not only had he already noticed it, but he ALSO didn’t think much of the intelligence of management.

Once, while working in a sales call center, I saw a letter one of our upper level managers sent to a customer. It was an apology letter. The very first line started out, “We apologize for your incontinence, but…” Of course, it should have said “inconvenience,” but a lack of self-editing created a serious blunder. I discovered shortly thereafter that the letter had actually become a FORM LETTER! Managers were sending out the same letter to customers worldwide, apologizing for their incontinence. I was mortified. I told management, and the whole lot of the call center managers became defensive as though I was attacking them. The letter was changed, but never again did I feel comfortable being the whistleblower on management mistakes in that call center. I lost respect for my management and immediately sought new employment.

All too often I gently point out an error, only to be treated harshly or as an attacker. People get defensive. “What, I can’t make a typo now and then?” “Who says you’re any better than I am?” “Just because you’re smart doesn’t mean you know best.”

Everyone makes typos. When I do so, I expect my reader to catch me on it, or at least hope they do. I want to learn from my mistakes! I’m not better than anyone, and smart doesn’t always come from a formal education. I know this. Yet…I expect a certain level of self-respect in the correspondence I read. To me, putting your all into something means every aspect, including writing. Jotting a quick note to a friend, shorthand or typos are to be expected, especially when the writer isn’t a very good typist, or has trouble writing for whatever reason. However, communication with peers, customers, superiors, or subordinates in the professional world should always have acceptable grammar and spelling. Why? To put it bluntly, errors call the writer’s intelligence, character, self-respect, and respect for the reader into question.

• Poor grammar and spelling on a resume tells your possible future employer that not only are you possibly not well educated, you are either hasty or find imperfect work acceptable, and that you don’t care as much as you could about the impression you are presenting. It also calls into question the level of respect you have for a prospective employer.
• Poor grammar and spelling in an email to one coworker can be overlooked if the two correspondents are also close friends. Poor grammar and spelling to a coworker who is barely an acquaintance, or to a group of coworkers shows the readers you really don’t care about them or what they think of your writing or education. Later, when your coworker Jane gets promoted, she’s not likely to ever consider you for employment under her, because you didn’t even have enough respect for your own coworkers on a lateral level to proofread your emails before hitting send. What reason does she have to think you would do a better job with her as your supervisor than you did as her coworker? In the professional world, always remember…anyone you work with is a potential future boss.
• Poor grammar and spelling in an email to your superior is just plain disrespectful (and not very smart.) If I were a supervisor who received a poorly written email from a subordinate, I would think less of him/her. I would think less of that person because they obviously didn’t think very highly of me, or they would have at least done a little editing before hitting send. I would also address that employee and ensure they understood that, as an employer, I expect employees to at least attempt professionalism in correspondence. I would also ask to proofread any customer or vendor correspondence from that employee for the next month or so, to ensure errors weren’t going out regularly. (…and yes, I would know that I was being a little harsh about it, but I believe strongly that a business should strive to maintain excellence in ALL areas, and that accepting less than excellence means becoming a second-rate business.) I would, however, be gentle about it. No one likes to be attacked for their mistakes.
• Poor grammar and spelling in an email to your subordinates says you just don’t care about them; they are not worthy enough of your time for you to proofread. Even more so, one of the quickest ways to lose the respect of your subordinates is to make yourself seem less educated than they are. There is a tenuous balance in the employer/employee relationship. The employer should always strive to expect more of him/herself than is expected of the employees, especially in written correspondence.
• Poor grammar and spelling in correspondence with a customer makes the customer feel as if they are dealing with amateurs who don’t deserve the customer’s further business. As a paying customer, one should expect excellence in the company being dealt with. If, as in the example above, the company can’t even produce a well-written apology, then why in the world should that customer continue dealing with that business? There are plenty of other businesses who expect excellence from their employees in all aspects.

Whatever happened to simply putting forth your best effort for no other reason than to know you’ve done your best? If your best includes being in too much of a hurry to proofread, then don’t be surprised when your best simply isn’t good enough.

P.S. I probably made my fair share of grammatical errors in this entry, but I spell-checked it and re-read it at least 5 times. Since I don’t know all the grammar rules there are in the world, I probably broke a few, and if you see them, please by all means enlighten me. I’ll make an effort to avoid said mistakes in the future.

…ever learning…

mommaserene

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