As I write this, I’m sitting in yet another hotel room – albeit a very nice one provided by the good folks at the Lone Star GCSA – trying to get some work done before speaking to its members before its big Texas Cup golf event.
It’s fun and terrifying to give a talk to a group of superintendents right before a big chapter golf event. On one hand, it’s a great opportunity to spark a few ideas for a wonderful audience of guys and gals. But, on the other, you know that you’re the only thing standing between a bunch of eager golfers and a beautiful course. About half of them are sitting their thinking, “When is this moron going to stop talking so I can hit some balls before we tee off.” You can always tell these guys by the glazed look in their eyes and the fact they keep practicing pretend grips underneath the table.
This is my busy time of year for speeches, conferences, etc., and I’ve been on the road nearly constantly for the past two weeks. As always, that means a succession of hotels (“What the hell is my room number again?”), mulling around in airport security lines and eating about four times as much as I would at home. Ah, the glamour of travel!
But these days, travel also brings with it the endless quest for wireless Internet access to connect back to the real world of modern business via e-mail.
With CNN being dominated by the story of an idiot member of the U.S. Congress (Wait, is that redundant?) being forced out of office for sending some incredibly awful e-mails to a teenaged former page, I thought it would be appropriate to offer a few musings about the realities of our modern e-mail world.
First, nothing sent by e-mail is secret. E-mail is the ultimate paper trail that can be traced in about a zillion ways. Never, ever include anything in an e-mail that you would not want announced over the loudspeaker at the first tee of the Masters.
Second, the majority of employers can and do track e-mail. In short, anytime you write and send an e-mail using your company system, you might as well drop a copy of it on your boss’s desk. I’m amazed at the number of people who send me notes complaining about their facility, their owner, their dumbass green chairman, etc., using the club’s e-mail. By the way, most employers also track Web usage, so I don’t recommend visiting the “Girls Gone Wild” site when you’re supposed to be researching fungicide costs for next year’s budget.
Third, do you really think it’s a good idea to post complaints, gripes, bitches, etc., on those “private” forums such as GCSAA, TurfNet and various chapter sites? Out of the thousands of colleagues, suppliers, etc., who might see your post, is their just one who hates your guts or wants your job enough to cut out that post and forward it on to the person you’re whining about?
Finally, e-mail is a wonderful tool, but it has a dark side. It’s very easy to fire off a nasty message (or even one that wasn’t intended to be nasty but appears to be so to the recipient). The best rule: Never hit “send” when you’re angry. Let it sit for a while, cool off and decide if you really want to flame somebody or not. Most of the time, you’ll decide to handle it another way.
All that said, keep those e-mails coming … but be careful out there in the digital world. GCN
