I’ve just got off a late night train home from London where I spotted someone’s discarded Evening Standard, featuring an interesting article by Philip Delves Broughton, examining how the way in which we deal with e-mail reveals our professional characters. The full article makes for interesting reading but I thought I’d quote from the side-panel on the new e-mail etiquette here:

• After the initial sales pitch, follow up by e-mail and phone.
• Beyond that, pestering will make you seem needy.
• Should you be looking for a job and get no response, reframe the pitch with something that will entice your potential employer – a fact about their competitor, an article of interest. Banging on about yourself is bad form.
• A voicemail not answered is better than an e-mail ignored.
• If you are swamped with e-mails, and don’t want to appear rude, consider an e-mail template that says no nicely.
• However, do not resort to the standard, unhelpful Out Of Office Reply. It effectively says, I’m not here so your problems can go to hell.