July 29, 2008 3:53 PM

Office e-mail no-nos
Posted by Jesse Nunesat 3:53 PM

ABC News has a pretty entertaining story on office e-mail etiquette. The piece talked about e-mail faux pas that many of us has have witnessed – or even contributed to. The "Netiquette no-no's" in the story included marking every email as Urgent!, "cc-ing" a co-worker's boss with criticism of that employee, and TYPING IN ALL CAPS.

Another "no-no" dealt with that pesky "reply all" button:

"My favorite was once seeing a group e-mail with about 60 e-mails talking about how the group needs to have less replies, less 'thanks' and 'great,'" says Anna Post, an author and etiquette expert at the Emily Post Institute.

The e-mail continued "with tons of replies of 'thanks' and 'great.' 'You're right.' I was laughing so hard," she says.

This is especially irksome to Peter Martin, an associate editor at Esquire magazine.

"I hate when people reply all, especially when they don't know everyone on the e-mail list," he says. "You're not that funny. This is the more aggressive version of writing 'hilarious' RSVPs for E-vites."

Post advises to never reply all — unless of course it's really needed.

"If you're adding something substantial to the conversation, then a reply all is worth it or if you need to confirm the information to everyone. Cool, neat-o, thanks — those are not necessary," Post says. "Invariably, it's someone who writes something they shouldn't who hits reply all and that's a whole other mess."

That "mess" happened in one Maryland office when a co-worker hit reply all and made a racial slur and sexual comments. She was moved to another position.

Ouch.

Well, at least that Maryland office worker is not alone in placing her digital foot in her digital mouth. Everyone seems to have a story of accidentally "cc-ing" the wrong person in an office e-mail, or sending a "reply all" message that was intended solely for the person who sent the original message.

Do you have any office e-mail pet peeves or horror stories?

Share your favorite office e-mail mishaps in our forum.

Also vote in our survey on the most annoying e-mail behavior.

Finally, check out our past gallery on Boston.com readers sharing their office place pet peeves.