Positivity in both our writing and how we read at work!

Why be positive in our communication at work?

Let’s start with the fact that as much as we may love our jobs, work can be tedious. Sometimes you have to work with folks who drive you nuts. Other times, you may have a challenge with a boss or a customer. And some days, you just don’t want to do the same thing that you did yesterday or last week.

Most of us *have* to work for one reason or another. And we’ve chosen our career paths as the way that we’d prefer to earn a living because there were parts of it that we enjoyed. But work is work. Which means that it is not always fun.

Ok, so because work is something we kinda have to do rather than something we are always excited and happy to be doing, maintaining a positive attitude is important just to keep us all sane. The more positive we can be about work, the better we’ll feel about doing it.

But I’m not a mood coach. 

The reason I’m writing about this is because writing has this thing called the negativity effect. Basically, the negativity effect means that anything you write to a person will always sound a little meaner than anything you could say.

And it is this tone problem in writing that gets us into trouble on occasion.

Writing also tends to be more “formal” than our spoken language. That formality has a few different explanations: 1) Writing was reserved for educated people for centuries. And a lot of writing–in English–was done by monks who spoke Latin. So our written English is infused with a lot of words that come from Latin. At the same time, our spoken language derived a lot of its content from German. (And these two branches get complicated at least twice by invasions of French. Hence English spelling.) That means we end up with words in English that are duplicates: use/utilize–one German, one Latin. Or review/revise–one German, one Latin. Typically, the German word is the one that we tend to say where the Latin word is the one that shows up in writing. 

2) Modern writing, let’s say in the 20th and 21st centuries, is happening a lot at work where the organizations we work for have massive potential legal consequences for almost any work they engage in. We write to document the business of the company so that the higher ups know what decisions are being made and can follow through on them. We also write to document contracts, policies, procedures, and other agreements and terms so that if there are problems, we can show the courts what was agreed to. Our workplace writing carries the weight of potentially ending up in court, which creates a certain level of formality. 

3) Our workplaces are cultural melting pots where people from lots of different backgrounds–whether that’s people from different countries or just people from different parts of the U.S.--come together to accomplish goals. So we’ve created a kind of workplace language that is closest to white upper middle class English and made that the standard “business language”. Everyone is expected to adapt to a greater or lesser degree to a kind of fictional corporate speak that isn’t really the way any person or group actually talks.

There are probably other reasons, but those are the three that I get most excited about. And that connect to the negativity effect where our business writing sounds mean. 

Business writing sounds mean because no one talks like that–no one ever did, except lawyers and even they speak more “normally” than how they write. 

How do we counteract the fact that business writing sounds mean?

Some people try to add in a lot of extra stuff–”I hope this email finds you well”--but that makes the problem *worse* not *better* because you wouldn’t say that in real life. It’s weird. It’s corporate. It’s fake.

Instead, we need to write in ways that sound genuine (and AI does not help anyone sound genuine, just FYI) so that we can actually connect with the person on the other side of our message. That means *not* using big words just because we are writing. And not writing long sentences just because we can. And not using bizarre corporate jargon that you would never actually say to another human that you wanted to hang out with.

And most importantly we need to write messages that focus on the positive. 

That means instead of saying what can’t or shouldn’t happen, we say what can or should happen. 

The check can’t arrive after the 15th.  Becomes “The check needs to arrive before the 15th.

Or

Our policy doesn’t allow returns. Becomes Our policy offers store credit only for returns.

Or

Your presentation was not good. Becomes The presentation could be improved in these ways.

These language changes make the content literally more positive by focusing on what *can* happen instead of what *can’t* or *didn’t*. 

Other suggestions for keeping writing positive include never writing threats in the body of an email–threats include consequences of not following through on policies or procedures or not meeting deadlines–and only attaching those and writing them in the 3rd person (use the word “employee” rather than the second person “you”). 

For email, make sure to use a greeting to open the conversation. This should have a greeting word or phrase *and* the person’s name (or a name for the group).

The email closing should be a standard one if you don’t know the person–Sincerely, Respectfully, Warmly, Kindly, Best–and it can be more enthusiastic if you do know them: Happy Friday! Hope you’re doing well! Have a great weekend!

The message should be short. It should use the word “you” in neutral and positive sentences and only use the word “I” for actions you have taken or will take.

All of these techniques help change the way the message will be received by showing that you care about the reader and their time and attention (Oh, by the way, never thank them for their time and/or attention; that’s just basic respect).

We can learn to write messages that don’t rely on corporate speak, which is circular and obtuse and strange (You can find a list of corporate phrases to avoid here). Simply read your message out loud to yourself and listen for whether it sounds like you. If it sounds like something you would say, all good! If it sounds like stuff you would never say out loud to another human, than something needs to be changed.

And if we write in ways that use language more effectively and more positively, we can improve our workplace.

But we are not only responsible for the negativity effect of writing when we are writers.

We are also responsible for the negativity effect of writing when we are readers.

The negativity effect actually happens in the mind of the reader. We read in a flat, monotone voice. We read based on our own mood (level of annoyance versus level of interest). We make the negativity effect in our own minds.

So, when you read that message from your colleague and think “They hate me” or “They must be really upset with me”, that’s usually happening in your head. They most likely don’t hate you and aren’t mad at you. They just don’t know how to write a message that sounds nice–because most people don’t actually learn how to write effectively for work; they just imitate the other people around them (who don’t know how to write for work either). 

As a reader, your job is to read with the happiest voice in your head. Imagine your colleagues love you, they want to work with you, they think you are smart and capable and delightful. Hear their voices as if they are your friends. And remember that if they use phrases like “Per my last email” they are mildly annoyed because you didn’t read their whole message, but also they probably didn’t write that message in a way that made it easy to read–because everyone needs more education on how to write well at work!

Write from a positive place. Not with fluff, but with language that is effective and focuses on what *can* be done.

Read from a positive place. Imagine that everyone writing to you is doing their best, even when they use awful corporate jargon. They are only doing that because they learned it from other people at work and they don’t know what else they should say. 

If we can read and write with a positive mood, we can make our communication at work significantly more effective because we will feel better about reading and writing at work. And let’s face it, that’s what most of us spend our day doing: Communicating!