Friday, June 19, 2015

Just Don't

This is a sentence from an email I received today:
Attached is the updated DRF for the immediate needs for the ASF initiative, with updates based on our discussion in the KO. Also attached are the templates for the internal BH electronic display. 
Allie and Julia, please don't fall into this trap. Unless you're working at NASA you'll come off as really pretentious. Spouting acronyms and jargon might make you feel like you're demonstrating how in tune you are with your organization's culture - like you're one of the shinier cogs in the machine. But most times you just appear to be too lazy to type the words, "kick off". 

Plus, there's the simple matter of being an effective communicator. If you're sending an acronym-riddled email to more than four people, you really shouldn't assume that everyone is familiar with, or likes the taste of your alphabet soup.

I know it's my fault that I had to take a significant amount of time to decode this message. I'm not a shiny cog. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't like to KTS out of people who send me this stuff. 

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