When your youngster goes off to college for the first time, they like to keep in touch with the family at home.  Also, mom, dad and siblings like to know all is going well with them.
Nowadays, there are so many ways to communicate and to let them know the ties with home aren’t broken:

Phone and cell phone
Text messaging
E-mail
Facebook or similar
Skype of similar
Postal mail
“Care” packages

I think our granddaughter has received all of these types of communications from her parents, brother, grandparents, friends and aunt.  We know her ups and downs and she knows we’re all here and care.
Nowadays the means of …read more

Finally! After much consternation and carping on my part about the lack of proper e-mail etiquette these days, comes music to my ears.
In the words of manners expert Letitia Baldridge in this week’s The New York Times Sunday Styles Section:
“…we need to have grace in our lives, and I’m not talking about heavenly grace. I’m talking about human grace…”
Ms. Baldridge is referring to how we compose, and more specifically how we sign-off on our e-mails.
Your salutation should be warm, friendly, appropriate to the situation or environment you are in…and above all it should be polite and friendly.
This article was …read more

Every year, as soon as I start to see Halloween decorations, I begin to examine the past year in terms of my goals, my accomplishments and my disappointments.
I know we still have several months to go before year-end, but I can’t help reflecting — maybe it’s the shift in temperature? (And when did those goofy blow up balloons become so popular?)
I discovered recently, that my saved e-mails also offers an opportunity for me to reflect:

The shameless self-promotion note to the editor of Vogue (Thanks for nothing Ms. Wintour.)
Ideas that never came to fruition.
The horrible missives between my colleague and …read more

Several years ago, while working at a large financial institution in NYC, I was given the responsibility to put together a marketing campaign directed at several hundred of the bank’s financial advisers.
In order to reach these folks, I had to get my hands on a one complete list of names. A complete list did not exist because many of the sales people did not work in one locale.
I did everything you would think to do: made phone calls, sent e-mails, visited colleagues in various locations in the city, had endless meetings. No one could either get me a list or …read more

How many times have you used or heard the phrase at work — “it was just a mix-up in communications”?
When we’re young and starting out in our careers, we want to be heard. We want everyone to know how we think, what our plans are and what our contributions are to the firm. We’re probably overly communicative.
Then when we hit supervisory or managerial status, (yay us, right?) something happens to our communication skills…they become lax. As our responsibilities, the expectations of others and just everyday stress increase, we somehow forget that there are others who depend on our voice in …read more

Are you an e-mail chatter box? Do you keep your inbox full rather than empty? Do you suffer from e-mail addiction? Do you know how to give the “e-mail brush-off”?
Did you know that how you manage your inbox says a lot about you? For example, “…if you keep your inbox full rather than empty, it may mean you keep your life cluttered in other ways,” says psychologist Dave Greenfield, who founded the Center for Internet Behavior in West Hartford, Conn.
Often, I would walk by someone’s desk and notice that he or she seemed to have thousands of unanswered e-mails. I …read more

Someone help me to understand something. HOW, in this age of communication overload — i.e., phones from which you can download music, movies..send (the obnoxious) text messages, oh–and make phone calls…it is possible for people to ignore you when you send them an e-mail??
This week, almost every person from whom I’ve needed information, answers, creative materials, bills, schedules or just a simple “hiya”, has not returned my e-mails. I swear I can hear the crickets chirping, it is so quiet out there.
It tells me that those who do not return my communiques, believe their time is more important than mine. …read more

Oh please, just admit it — you know who you are, and you know what your problem is — you or someone you know has a very specific electroninc dependency…and it’s got to stop.
Sneaking around, checking potentially IMPORTANT e-mails, leaving that stupid blinking light on 24/7, even in the blackness your room as you sleep (or your partner tries to sleep)…oh, and the bzzzzz that scares the dog toward having a mild stroke — I’m begging you…take a break and get some help.
It’s your Blackberry and there are steps that can be taken. Read Adam Bryant’s thoughts on this supremely …read more