Who should set the tone for a good morning at work?
Q. In an office setting, who says hello first in the morning: the person already sitting down working or the person just entering the area?
J B., Dorchester
A. Typically, the person entering his work place makes the first greeting. When I enter our office, I'll say hello to our administrative assistant, and then he responds. Sometimes he's working at a computer or doing something and can't turn to make the first greeting. It would be wrong for me to expect him to drop whatever he is doing to initiate the greeting. However, in an office where there is a receptionist, then he or she should greet newcomers: "Good morning, Joe," or "Good morning, how may I help you?"
Q. There's something that annoys me when it comes to e-mail: When people have their Outlook accounts set up to always send "read receipts." I understand that sometimes they're necessary, but 99 percent of the time they're not. It's almost as if they don't trust me.
N. M., San Jose, Calif.
A. E-mail is at the root of many office communication problems. A little etiquette can go a long way to solving them. While this certainly isn't a deal-breaker of an issue, I agree it's annoying. I wish people would disable the read receipt function in their mail setup.
When you receive a read receipt message you're given a choice of whether to send a receipt or not. There's no requirement that you do so. If I don't know the person well, I generally opt not to send the read receipt message. If I do know them well, my response depends on what the specific e-mail is about. In a business setting, the larger issue is that if you receive an e-mail that asks you for information, you should send a reply. If it will take some time to put information together for an answer, then the appropriate action is to send an immediate reply acknowledging you have received the e-mail and will respond fully later.
E-mail questions about business etiquette to etiquetteatwork@emilypost.com. If your letter appears in this column, you will receive a copy of Peter Post's "The Etiquette Advantage in Business." 