Categories: translation
Date: 12 October 2008 13:55:23
Rarely does a day go by without my marvelling at the miracle of e-mail. I simply cannot understand how I can receive massive documents with graphics and text sent for hundreds of miles and receive them a seconds after the sender presses a little button his/her computer.
Sometimes, though, I think we become too reliant on pressing "send". Because we know the message will be received almost instantly, we are fooled into thinking that the recipient will be able to reply instantly. Which is not always the case.
A client sent a request for an urgent job to be done earlier this week. He sent it at 14:12 and cancelled the request at 14:32 as I hadn't replied. I had gone downstairs for a bowl of soup and a sandwich as it was 13:12 here and therefore lunch time. I sent him a polite little note to basically remind him that if he wants me THAT urgently, he would be better to phone - especially as there is an hour's difference between the UK and Western Europe. Not much difference in the grand scheme of things - but enough to lose out on a bit of income!
"Email" incidentally is the German word for "enamel".