You’re emailing wrong at work. Follow this etiquette guide.

You’re having dinner after work when your boss emails you. Do you have to respond?

If you send a colleague an email, is it okay to send a follow-up before they respond?

And is it offensive if ChatGPT writes your emails?

The unwritten rules of email have gotten only more confusing after the pandemic changed the way many of us communicate with people at work. Instead of just talking in person or using email and phones, we now regularly video conference, instant message and even text. Yet email is still part of many workers’ jobs, and using it correctly can have a big effect on the people you work with as well as their perception of you.

“Email still plays an enormously important role [at work],” said Andrea Weckerle, Georgetown University professor of integrated marketing communications and author of “Civility in the Digital Age: How Companies and People Can Triumph Over Haters, Trolls, Bullies and Other Jerks.” “It’s the default that people will use as the first source of communicating with others.”

So what does good email behavior look like and when are you being annoying?

Most situations depend on the workplace culture. Still, there are some basic rules. Three email and business experts gave us tips for good email etiquette so you can avoid being the jerk at work.

Consider not sending an email

You should ask yourself “who’s your reader and what’s the best way to communicate with that person?” said Barbara Pachter, owner and president of Pachter & Associates, a business etiquette and communications training firm.

Not all emails need to be emails. Do you have a quick question to ask a colleague? It may be easier to pop over to their desk or send a quick message over text or through your workplace instant messaging platform. Does it require a long discussion with several people? Maybe a meeting or video call would be better.

But if it’s less pressing and requires a bit more explanation or even an associated document, email might be the best option. Experts say follow the norms of your workplace before sending a message. If your colleagues text, then text them. Email is a safe choice for the first outreach, Weckerle said.

Keep it short and clear

Your emails should be welcoming, but also quick to get to the point. Be cognizant of how much you’re typing. And while there’s no hard rule on length, Pachter said generally don’t go beyond a screen and a half, as your reader will eventually stop scrolling. But Kendra Losee, co-author of “Digital Etiquette for Dummies,” said people’s patience might be even shorter if they’re reading on their phone. If you have to go in depth, consider including an attachment or even hosting a meeting instead. Just remember, no one wants to read a dissertation, Weckerle said.

“Stick to the purpose of the email, show a personal touch and be done with it,” she said. “It shows respect for the person’s time and that you know what you’re doing.”

Make it easy to read

Don’t make your reader work for the information in your email. The standard format is to start with a greeting - a hello, hi or good morning/afternoon plus their name - followed by a few separate paragraphs and a sign off, such as thank you, then a comma followed by your name. You can also use bullets or subheadings to make it easier to find specific pieces of information, Losee said. It’s best follow the format of your company. Just make sure you don’t have one massive block of text, which is hard on the eyes, Pachter said.

Schedule for later

Email providers offer an option to write your email now but schedule it to send later. So if you’re working late at night or really early in the morning, schedule your email to send at the start of the business day. This keeps your email from getting buried and also doesn’t cause your colleagues or supervisor to question or panic over your timing, Losee said.

If you’d rather not schedule your emails, at least include the timing of when you expect a response from the person so they don’t assume they need to respond immediately. Similarly, most people don’t read the minute they receive them - so no, you don’t need to respond to your boss at 11 p.m. (and if you do, they’ll probably call, text and/or message you).

Don’t blow up the inbox

Don’t send several emails to the same person before they’ve had the chance to respond, experts said.

“It looks like you don’t have your stuff together,” Weckerle said.

You can follow up with a second email if you forgot to mention something in the first or as a reminder if you haven’t received a timely response - generally you should give people until the end of the day or if it’s late in the day, 24 hours to respond. Beyond that, wait for a response before sending a third email. You can include any forgotten items in your response.

As the receiver of an email, it’s good form to let the sender know you got the message even if it doesn’t require a response, Weckerle said.

Check your tone

Your emails should strike a professional and, in some cases, friendly tone. If you’re upset, take a breather before responding. But don’t get too casual or unfiltered as emails can always be forwarded to other recipients.

“Read your writing out loud to hear how it sounds” before sending, Pachter said. “If it sounds harsh, it may sound harsh to the reader.”

Digital tools can also help with tone. Artificial intelligence bots like ChatGPT allow you to drop in your text and ask what tone it’s written in (just be cautious the email doesn’t include any private information), Losee said. Grammarly also has a tone checker.

As the recipient of an email, don’t assume a short email is aggressive or personal. Often, people rush their responses, so give them the benefit of the doubt, Losee said.

Use your voice

The internet has tons of tools to help you write emails when you’re not sure how to respond. You can find boilerplate responses or use generative AI tools to write the email for you. But experts say don’t just copy and paste. People want to know they’re communicating with a human, specifically you. So feel free to use the tools, then go back and edit to include some of your personality, Losee said.

Always proofread

Take a few extra seconds to reread your email before you hit send. It’ll save you a lot of grief when you realize you misspelled your boss’s name in the greeting. And if you use any kind of autofill or predictive text, there’s a chance the machine got something wrong.

“Any one of us can have an error every now and then,” Pachter said. “But if you consistently send errors or any one email has a number of errors, your professionalism will be questioned.”

Reject reply all

While there are some exceptions, most of the time “people absolutely hate it,” Pachter said.

Just hit reply and spare the rest of the group an extra email.

Go easy on the emojis

Go easy on the emojis, exclamations, quotes, colors and fonts in your emails.

“No one cares,” Losee said. “It’s an email.”

Danielle Abril covers technology and its impact on workers across industries for The Washington Post.