How to Handle the Email Power Play
Avoid creating resentment and eroding trust in your daily work messages.
Many of us are familiar with power plays in face-to-face encounters at work. We’ve all been there when a boss or older colleague pulls away physically, deliberately turns toward another teammate in a meeting, or suddenly stops making friendly gestures. Or maybe a teammate begins interrupting you in meetings, leaving you out, or rushing you along, signaling she’s just too busy to chat.
In the digital sphere, power-plays are just as common and, some might argue, more pernicious. Online, we’re presented with a host of new ways to engage in power plays, and a screen to shield us from admitting we’re doing so. We can “forget” to CC our colleague, send a slightly unfriendly or scolding follow up, or opt for a cursory, one-word Slack message. Or we can deliberately delay a reply, start with a passive-aggressive “Per my last email”, or needlessly scold someone for their choice of words. (That CFO who gave you a scoldy reply to your perfectly polite email seems awful!) The effect of a pursed lip is now communicated with a punctuation mark or a vague sign off.
And then some of us might be wrongly accused of digital power plays. These days, an ellipses can signal anything from passive aggressiveness to disdain. In this way…
