This is one of the top questions I get asked:
“How do I nicely ask someone not to keep forwarding me jokes and chain mails to my business e-mail address?”
I think it is telling that folks ask me how to ask “nicely.” I guess that shows their frustration with folks who do not understand that sending feel good “send to all your friends” type e-mails are not those you send to someone’s business address.
We all know how to ask nicely. It is as if they know no matter how nicely they ask, the other side will get mad and there will be hurt feelings — or in the case of business, a client or customer that may take their business elsewhere. Unfortunately, in my over a decade of experience I find that to be just the case.
No matter how “nice” you may be, many folks will take your request personally and get upset or mad. And if they don’t get mad; they will completely disregard your request and keep on forwarding.
What often comes next:
“Please guide me so that I don’t say what I really want to say!!”
Explain that you would appreciate being removed from their personal lists of forwards. Let them know that you have a workload volume of e-mails that you need to get to and prioritize and really only want to receive e-mails that are work related to your work address.
Then, you can send them to this article: 5 Rules of Forwarding Email. When sending them to the article you could state something like “I found this article that taught me a thing or two about what to consider when forwarding e-mails and thought you might find it helpful too!”
When all else fails, I have an article on my general e-mail etiquette site specifically created for folks to send people to: How do I ask someone to stop forwarding me all those silly emails?
Hopefully, they will be courteous enough to honor your request and be more responsible about what and how they forward e-mails.
Some More Info for You:
![[Business E-mail Etiquette eBook]](http://www.businessemailetiquette.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/bee-2012-100x140.png)
![[Take The Email Etiquette Pledge]](http://www.emailetiquettepledge.com/ee-rev-medium.jpg)
Dear Judith,
Awhile back ago, I sent your 5 Rules of Forwarding Email to my mother who finds it appropriate to send politically charged and often offensive emails to my business email and boy did she flip. So what I did, and it could probably be filed under “lying”, was I told her that my company found this emails in a routine sweep of email accounts and reprimaned me for them. It may not be true, but I’m sure it could happen. Anyway, it did the trick and the emails stopped. Now she’s flooding my personal email, but that will have to be dealt with another time.
Anyway, thank you for your great advice. I subscribe to your blog and have referred quite a few coworkers and friends to your site. I know I’m become much more professional via email since finding this site.
Thanks again,
Eve Logan
Hey, Eve:
So glad everything worked out for you! Sometimes a little “fib”, can help to avoid unnecessary hurt feelings when the other side doesn’t understand the implications of their actions.
For the forwarding to your personal account, I have an article on my general E-mail Etiquette site: How Do I Ask Them to Stop Forwarding All Those Silly Emails? than many use to send the naive forwarders in their life to. Mostly using the Recommend a Friend feature to tell the folks they care about, “about a site that has all kinds of e-mail etiquette stuff I wasn’t aware of and thought you would want to learn to.” Then, hopefully they read, learn and take a hint.
Thank you as well for you kind words and support — you’ve made my day!