KEY POINTS:
Feeling a bit grumpy about heading back to work this morning? Don't let it show in your emails - one in three of your colleagues will just hit delete.
Researchers from Waikato University and Wintec have found about a third of us are likely to display a "reactive response" when an email arrives at work we consider offensive, unpleasant or negative.
Professor Ted Zorn said that generally meant deleting the message or ignoring it, at least for a cooling-off period.
Emotive email "can create a challenging situation, one that can have important consequences for relationships, reputations and careers", he said.
One person in the exploratory study received an email that read: "I WANT YOUR TIMESHEETS NOW."
He said he deleted the email immediately and delayed handing in his timesheet.
However, two-thirds of those in the study took a "considered response", which meant reflecting on the message and sometimes consulting others or asking to meet the sender face-to-face.
Professor Zorn, from the Waikato Management School, said there was little research on emotive email in the workplace and very few organisations had adopted guidelines for what could quickly escalate.
His study showed people were more likely to use intuition or knowledge of the person who wrote the message to decide how to respond.
And that was fraught with danger in the workplace, where experience showed "ill-considered emails had damaged careers and company reputations".
Professor Zorn said in a US study of 2500 email users, almost a quarter said work email had caused misunderstandings.
Email lacked the complexities and subtleties of face-to-face communication and, without being able to see the person, created a tendency to violate accepted norms, communicate aggressively and escalate conflict.
And every workplace had people who attempted to convey sarcasm and humour but "consistently overestimated their ability to do so".
While senders often struggled to convey the appropriate tone, receivers were challenged to interpret the meaning.
Professor Zorn said there were also sure-fire triggers to annoy people receiving an email, such as a message complaining about you and copied to your boss or colleagues.
The research, carried out by Professor Zorn and Angela Stewart from Wintec, will be presented to 5000 delegates as one of the top papers at the US-based National Communication Association's November conference in Chicago.
