Woman fired for ALL CAPS emails
A New Zealand health care employee was allegedly fired for “confrontational emails” because she always wrote emails in CAPS, which LOOKED LIKE SHE WAS YELLING AT EVERYONE. If you find yourself tapping that pesky CAPS LOCK button, here’s a little trick that can help.
If you’re interested to read about poor ‘ol Vicki Walker, here’s the story about her early dismissal. About 18 months ago in this blog I shared a little-known trick on how to quickly change WORDS IN CAPS into lowercase text — without having to rewrite everything all over again.
Because if you send that email as-is, the recipient might think you’re yelling at them.
If this happens often to you — and yes, those who look at their keyboard to type instead of the monitor, I’m talking to you — then follow this simple tip while using Microsoft Outlook or Word (sorry, it doesn’t work in Outlook Express):
Step 1: Use your mouse to highlight all the text you accidentally wrote in uppercase.
Step 2: Hold down the Shift key and tap F3.
That’s all, folks!
All the highlighted text should now be in lowercase. If you tap SHIFT + F3 again it will go to Title Case and a third time will go back to uppercase.
Cool, huh?
I suspect the issue may have also been that this woman was not only sending emails internally, but to clients or other organizations. The article doesn’t say what her position was – could she have been sending emails to a Municipality, Conservation Authority, Bank, whatever? Possibly. It’s one thing if you get used to a co-worker’s email style – I am sure that those in the health field (as mentioned in the above posts)understand if a co-worker sends an email in caps, but it is a COMPLETELY different ball game if you receive an email from someone with whom you are not well aquainted. Imagine you receive an email from an engineering firm requesting a piece of information. Now, imagine that same email in caps. It makes a huge difference. In my opinion, it is quite likely that not only was this employee annoying management, she may have been ruffling feathers externally to the company, and one thing management does NOT like, is receiving complaints about a staff’s behaviour. And that is not exclusive to any specific field.
boss needs to take a course in computer. Grow up.
Stop picking were not in school again.
So I had this issue in the last two weeks at work. Last year in my Office Admin. course at college we were taught to type the subject line in all CAPS – so with my new job this is what I did. Now I send many emails a day but had this one fellow scold me for typing my subject in all caps. He said he was offended – I was a little pissed cause I was only doing what I learned from a Professors who has taught Office Admin for 20+ years. Anyways quite frankly it was not something I had thought much about – having the subject line in all caps makes the email stand out. It’s only my opinion – but I think there are way more things to worry about than ALL CAPS!!!
So I had this issue in the last two weeks at work. Last year in my Office Admin. course at college we were taught to type the subject line in all CAPS – so with my new job this is what I did. Now I send many emails a day but had this one fellow scold me for typing my subject in all caps. He said he was offended – I was a little pissed cause I was only doing what I learned from a Professor who has taught Office Admin for 20+ years. Anyways quite frankly it was not something I had thought much about – having the subject line in all caps makes the email stand out. It’s only my opinion – but I think there are way more things to worry about than ALL CAPS!!!
yep i get that totally! see it is about some saps taking it upon themselves to express their personal displeasure. everyone knows when writing words in caps, italics, bold … it is a way of making a point whether they be a shoutin, or plain sayin it, it is a point made. futhermore if that person displays that kind of passive aggressiveness in the billing dept. imagine what she must be like to work with! Fire her ass send her to bill collections where her true talents lie!
What this article doesn’t say is that the lady in question has taken her employer to court and been awarded $70,000 for unfair dismissal!
I too am a grammar freak. I hate it when people spell words incorrectly or use the wrong tense of a word. And when you type in all caps, it does have a “yelling” effect on the reader, but it’s really not a big deal. I recieve e-mails all the time that have words spelled wrong but I just read it and ignore the mistakes. It’s not a big deal, and this woman (not women) should not have been fired for something so silly. The employer should have taken this as his cue that she obviously needed some extra training in computer use!
I think this article is inaccurate in describing the situation. There is way too much information missing for us, as readers, to come to a valid conclusion.On the note of ettiquette, I’M NOT SURE HOW SOMEONE CAN MISS HOW AGGRESSIVE AND OVERPOWERING IT IS to be communicatied to in caps. Your obviously trying to establish some sort of attention so that your text stands out. Besides, this isn’t something newage…you think e-mail established that caps=yelling…hardly. Capital letters has been used as a literay effect for decades before the internet had even existed so this shouldn’t be a surprise. Besides, can’t you see that your coworkers aren’t responding to you in the same manner…isn’t that a good sign this isn’t common form? Caps lock is just a stretch of the pinky finger over, if it’s “inconvient” for you to press that button and turn it off, your clearly lazy as hell.
i THINK ALL CAPS IS PERFECTALLY ALRIGHT… IF THE RECIPIANT OF A LETTER THINKS THEY ARE BEING YELLED AT .. THEY MUST BE PRETTY STUPID .. AND FOR THAT GIRL TO LOSE HER JOB … THATS JUST IGNORANTALLY RETARTED … WHOM EVER IS CONCERENED WITH THE FACT THAT EVERYTHING IS IN CAPS IS PATHETIC AND SHOULD REALLY GET A LIFE.
I work in the healthcare field also. One of my bosses always writes his e-mails in CAPs and large font. He does it because he has trouble seeing and refuses to use eyeglasses. We are all aware of this and accept his e-mails as is without judgement.
“Wrongful Dismissal???”….I really hope she fights this. I was fired for accidentally sending out a mass e-mail when it was meant for just one person. I was unfamiliar with the complicated government system and the e-mail did not contain anything derogatory or inflamatory….and no, I had not had any warnings or done anything else wrong. If the job had been one I had planned on making a career out of, I would have taken it to court, which is what I think this woman should do as well. Everyone is very tense, it seems, and should really learn to relax a little, read the content of the e-mail, ignore spelling erros, CAPS and all and get on with it already!
Of course one could always type the email in Word first and do all the necessary checks and then copy and paste to email. This skips the first step and saves a bit of time. Also, what had this lady been instructed to do?
Have a great day all!!!!!!!!
Is the woman hearing impaired? Because that would explain all the yelling! LOL
HEHEHE VERY NICE TIP : )
Are we in the work place to concentrate on making money for our employers, make a living and at the same time is it e-mail for the sole purpose to exchange information and getting response faster? Do we have to pay attention to every nonsense. Computers do not yell. Do we need psychologist for the sole fact that someone who is very busy forgot to switch from caps to small letters? Is this more important than essence of the e-mail. No one is offending anyone, caps are not vulgar words. I am positive that people use word f… more often than caps ( used by high rank officals)and nobody has problem with that. Get real people and go to work. As for some employers they better look in the mirror. I am glad I have employers with common sense. In this age if you oversensitive you require serious help. Hoping the everyone has wonderful day.
It worked for me.
Did anyone read the supposedly offending e-mail?
“TO ENSURE YOUR STAFF CLAIM IS PROCESSED AND PAID, PLEASE DO FOLLOW THE BELOW CHECK LIST.”
This is an all caps sentence within an otherwise mixed case message. It seems to me that the emphasis is warranted, as is the red, bolded due date.
I think people should keep in mind the type of industry the lady potentially worked in and what the content of the emails were. The employer probably had recieved many emails or complaint calls from clients, coworkers and the like regarding it. Probably did warn her about it multiple times and was likely ignored.
Although, I think that all emails should be professional, industry type is also important. I had a lawyers assistant who constantly capatilized her letters to me, which was the deciding factor in why I terminated my relationship with the lawyer. It does affect business.
HELLO NEW ZEALAND,
I AM WRITING TO THE COMPANY THAT FIRED WOMAN WHO USED ALL CAPS IN THE E-MAIL TEXT.
WHOEVER SAYS, THAT CAPS IN THE E-MAIL SUGGEST THAT YOU SHOUT AT OTHER PERSON HAS TO HAVE HIS / HER HEAD EXAMINED?
IT SEEMS LIKE YESTERDAY, WE SEND MESSAGES BY TELEX AND THE TEXT WAS ALL CAPS TO MAKE SURE THAT THE MESSAGE IS READABLE.
PLEASE USE CTRL + A TO SELECT ALL TEXT.
PERSONALLY, I THINK THE WORLD HAS TURNED UPSIDE DOWN, FIRING SOMEONE FOR CAPITALIZING MAIN MESSAGE IN THE E-MAIL.
HELLO EVERYONE, JUST THINK HOW WORLD’S ECONOMY WAS THEN, WHEN WE USED TELEX, AND HOW THE ECONOMY STANDS NOW?
I WOULD LIKE TO ADD THAT I AM AGAINST:
• DRINKING AND DRIVING
• DRIVING AND USING TEXT MESSAGING
• DRIVING AND TALKING ON THE CELLULAR PHONE
• USING PLASTIC BOTTLES, CONTAINERS, ETC
NEW TECHNOLOGY CONTRIBUTED TO POLLUTION OF AIR, LAND, WATER AND OUR CHILDREN’S MINDS.
I HOPE THAT EVERYONE WHO READS THIS MESSAGE UNDERSTANDS MY POINT.
GOD, BLESS YOU ALL, DO YOU HEAR ME YELLING—I HOPE NOT, DANIELA
HELLO NEW ZEALAND,
I AM WRITING TO THE COMPANY THAT FIRED WOMAN WHO USED ALL CAPS IN THE E-MAIL TEXT.
WHOEVER SAYS THAT CAPS IN THE E-MAIL SUGGEST THAT YOU SHOUT AT OTHER PERSON HAS TO HAVE HIS / HER HEAD EXAMINED?
IT SEEMS LIKE YESTERDAY, WE SEND MESSAGES BY TELEX AND THE TEXT WAS ALL CAPS TO MAKE SURE THAT THE MESSAGE IS READABLE.
PLEASE USE CTRL + A TO SELECT ALL TEXT.
PERSONALLY, I THINK THE WORLD HAS TURNED UPSIDE DOWN, FIRING SOMEONE FOR CAPITALIZING MAIN MESSAGE IN THE E-MAIL.
HELLO EVERYONE, JUST THINK HOW WORLD’S ECONOMY WAS THEN WHEN WE USED TELEX, AND HOW THE ECONOMY STANDS NOW?
I WOULD LIKE TO ADD THAT I AM AGAINST:
• DRINKING AND DRIVING
• DRIVING AND USING TEXT MESSAGING
• DRIVING AND TALKING ON THE CELLULAR PHONE
• USING PLASTIC BOTTLES, CONTAINERS, ETC
NEW TECHNOLOGY CONTRIBUTED TO POLLUTION OF AIR, LAND, WATER AND OUR CHILDREN’S MINDS.
I HOPE THAT EVERYONE WHO READS THIS MESSAGE UNDERSTANDS MY POINT.
GOD, BLESS YOU ALL, DO YOU HEAR ME YELLING—I HOPE NOT, ALEKSANDER, CANADA