Sendmail, CPP Survey: 64% Cite #Email as Source of #Workplace Confusion, Resentment

EMERYVILLE and MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., June 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Sendmail, Inc., which simplifies business email complexity for Fortune 1000 enterprises, and CPP, Inc., an industry leader in research, training, and organizational development tools including the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) assessment, today issued an infographic with findings from its new Email Personalities Survey.

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According to 43% of the survey respondents, of all the communication technologies in the workplace, email is the most likely to create resentment between senders and receivers. Texting also ranked high on the list of offenders at 32%.

While 92% agreed email is a valuable communication and collaboration tool, 64% reported having either sent or received an email that resulted in unintended anger or confusion.  The reasons for this include: lack of replies (51%), too many "Reply Alls" (25%), messages that were confusing or vague (19%), and too much email in general (18%).

Using MBTI concepts, email senders and receivers can begin to address common issues in email communications, particularly related to reducing confusion, email frequency, and increasing relevancy in this still-abundant communication method.

"This is the reason CPP wanted to work with Sendmail to create this survey," said Jennifer Overbo, Director of MBTI Product Strategy at CPP, Inc. "By being aware of your personality preferences and those of your colleagues, and adopting better email etiquette, you can tailor communications for more productive interactions in the workplace."

Findings were mostly consistent across all age groups, except for 18 to 29 year-olds who are 13% less likely than 30 to 40 year-olds to be angered by email, 7% more annoyed by bad grammar than all other age groups, and 12% more likely to value faster replies. At 45%, this group also points to texting—not email—as the technology most likely to create friction in the workplace.

"Thirty years after our founder created the technology that helped make business email what it is today, people still struggle to craft messages that don't create confusion or resentment," said Sendmail Vice President of Marketing Barry Shurtz. "Proper email etiquette is key, but co-workers also need to consider the personality and preferences of those they're emailing. This will help ensure messages are interpreted as intended."

To avoid creating tension when emailing, CPP and Sendmail recommend combining "personality awareness" with proper email etiquette. For instance, those with a preference for Extraversion—who may send long and frequent emails—can try being more concise. And in general, even the busiest of emailers should acknowledge all emails with at least a quick reply. More tips are included in the infographic, which is available for download at https://www.cpp.com/images1/mbti_sendmail_infographic.jpg.

More than 500 working professionals in the US, 18 years and over, participated in the Email Personalities Survey, conducted online during the month of March, 2013.

About Sendmail, Inc.
Sendmail simplifies business email complexity and reduces IT infrastructure costs for large enterprises. The company's solutions ensure global email connectivity, routing, and message delivery between people, systems, and applications located on-premises, in-cloud or on mobile devices. The Sentrion Email Integration Platform performs intelligent email policy and message inspection ensuring all critical communications and content are integrated with business policies, applications and processes. Sendmail is headquartered in Emeryville, CA with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, call 1-87-SENDMAIL or email [email protected].

See what Sendmail provides in this short video and learn how Sentrion simplifies business email complexity.

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© Sendmail, Inc. 1998-2013. All rights reserved. Other trademarks, service marks and trade names belong to their respective companies.

About CPP, Inc.
Since its founding in 1956, CPP, Inc. has been a leading publisher and provider of innovative products and services for individual and organizational development, supplying reliable training solutions to businesses of all sizes, including the Fortune 500. The company's hundreds of offerings have been used by millions of individuals in more than 100 countries, in more than 20 languages, to help people and organizations grow and develop by improving performance and increasing understanding. CPP is the exclusive publisher of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator^® instrument (MBTI^®), the world's most widely used personality assessment. The company's research division continually updates the MBTI instrument to ensure its ongoing validity and accuracy, and regularly publishes data supporting its research-based foundation at www.cpp.com/MBTIvalidity. CPP's other world-renowned brands and services include the Strong Interest Inventory^®, Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI), FIRO^®, CPI 260^® and California Psychological Inventory™ (CPI™) assessments. For more information about CPP, visit www.cpp.com.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Myers-Briggs, and MBTI are registered trademarks of the Myers & Briggs Foundation, Inc. Strong Interest Inventory, FIRO, and CPI 260 are registered trademarks and California Psychological Inventory and CPI are trademarks of CPP, Inc.

Press Contact:
Chris Blake
818-261-6106
[email protected]

SOURCE Sendmail

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