The Mute Button

Take it from one who has often inserted one of her size nine feet in her mouth: when it comes to office etiquette, these times demand the utmost of vigilance. Even your unintended, harmless misstep can end up in places that you never dreamed possible. As the year draws to a close and the news is light, today is a reminder of a few handy tips to help you beef up your office etiquette and decision-making abilities.

1) Read and re-read your e-mail body and address line before you hit the send button: I learned this lesson early in the e-mail era. A man who had no intention of working with the firm peppered me with about a million questions and one day, I was so fed up, I forwarded his message to someone in my office, calling the serial questioner a “leach”. Check that…I thought that I had forwarded the message, when in fact I erroneously hit the reply button. As you might imagine, the leach moniker did not go over very well.

2) Beware of the Mute button: Years ago, my investment banking sister was on a conference call when her boss pushed the mute button and said to the roomful of people, “These guys (on the other side of the deal and the phone line) are such idiots. After we close, I hope that I never have to talk to them again.” Imagine his surprise when from the other end of the line, he heard: “believe me, the feeling is mutual!” Mute buttons are tricky – my advice is to never say anything negative while on a call, mute button or not.

3) When you run a public company, try not to curse at analysts and definitely lose the sarcasm: You might think that this is silly advice, but on Wednesday, Sallie Mae’s chief executive Albert L. Lord conducted what could only be called a disastrous call. Clearly the company has gone through some pretty serious troubles, but Lord preferred to avoid the questions and said that he would answer them at a meeting in January.

Folks were not too happy with the evasion, so in a bit of (failed) sarcasm, Lord said: "I can assure you, you will be going through a metal detector." Get it? He was joking about a disgruntled investor storming the shareholder meeting with a gun. Not funny. Well, at least Lord ended the conference call with a bang. He said "Let's go. There's no questions. Let's get the [expletive] out of here." That line ended up on countless blogs almost immediately and is now part of the permanent history of Mr. Lord’s tenure at the firm.

4) Take “The Mirror Test”: The fine team at the Illinois-based Ethical Leadership Group has developed what they call “The Mirror Test” for every professional. Before you do/say/send anything, ask yourself the following three questions, which should help you avoid hot water:

1) Is it Legal?
2) Is it Right?
3) What will Others Think?

This simple process can truly recalibrate your decision-making process and hopefully will help you think through your actions and words before you insert your foot in your mouth!