When Senders change certain verbiage within an e-mail to the color red, they are making a point — and a strong point at that! The use of red to indicate emphasis is an extra effort taken by the Sender to ensure the Recipient understands just how strongly they feel about the topic at hand.
Red is so often used as a way to emphasize only certain points that many (handfuls) each day ask me “What did they mean by using red for certain words in their e-mail?” Usually followed by “Were they yelling at me?”
The Sender meant to make a point, to add strong emphasis and wanted to ensure those words in particular caught your attention. Yes, you could say that they were using a louder voice — but not yelling at you as typing in all caps would indicate. Now, typing in all red caps without a doubt reflects the Sender is clearly upset and unmistakably wants you to know that. When it comes to your business e-mails, if you have the itch to type in caps and turn them red; it may be best you cool off and wait until the next morning to respond when cooler heads can prevail.
I have never used changing text to red as a tool to communicate tone or emphasis in my business e-mails and have to wonder if it is really the best approach in business communications of any kind. You don’t selectively “red” words on your business letterhead so why would you do it in an e-mail? Simply because you can? Why not work on choosing the proper words that relay your intent and tone — the English language offers a plethora of words for you to choose from.
Red has a long history of being an aggressive color. For the ancient Romans, a red flag was a signal for battle. Because of its visibility, stop signs, stoplights, brake lights, and fire equipment are all painted red. To “see red” is to be angry.
So, if you are “seeing red” know that the Sender clearly wanted to make a point to you — no need to wonder what they meant by doing so. And if you change text to red, don’t be suprised if the recipient’s response indicates they are in fact “seeing red” as well.
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I recently missed a deadline. I sent an email to my work group asking for clarification on priorities for the project so that I could act accordingly. The person who was leading the effort replied to my questions using ALL CAPS, Bold, and Red fonts. I obviously felt I was being yelled at. I then replied back to them (and copied my boss) that using that combination was yelling and “please don’t yell at me.” The next week, my boss told me that I was inappropriate for writing that back, and she didn’t see that as yelling. The person replied to my email saying that they didn’t think it was yelling, either. I was flabbergasted. How could they not see that as yelling? They made me feel that I was out of my mind. But reading this post has confirmed for me that I was not crazy. Thanks for making me feel better.
Hey, Heather…
So, if she wasn’t yelling, why did she type in all caps and turn the font red? If she didn’t mean anything by doing that — then why did she do it? For no reason? Please…
Obviously this person is being shielded by your boss who rather than tell you that you were inappropriate should have let this other person know that communicating in that manner in business e-mails is not acceptable — or professional.
I see this quite often from unprofessional onliners who respond emotionally and then when they receive a response based on how *they chose* to format their e-mail, then proceed to act like the other person is blowing things out of proportion. The fact is that when you make any formatting changes for the sake of emphasis — you are adding emphasis. Do that and expect a strong response in return!
Your boss and this person are incorrect in their response to you. Red is a known aggressive color. You type in all caps, when in business e-mails one should always use proper case, and you turn those capped words into the aggressive color red, it will be perceived at the very least as a strong aggressive statement.
One can’t make those specific and deliberate efforts and then not be willing to deal with the response those efforts will produce.
You are most certainly not out of your mind!