Stop Doing These 5 Things and Turn Your Emails Into Masterpieces The Director of Italy's Uffizi Gallery sent his staff the rules for proper work emails.
By Dan Bova
No excessive punctuation?? No way!!!
Eike Schmidt, director of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, is so used to artistic masterpieces on the walls that he wants the masterpieces in his email inbox, too.
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After seven years of running the museum that houses works by Michelangelo and da Vinci, he has laid down the guidelines for what is and isn't acceptable in work emails by sending out, well, a company-wide email.
Here are Schmidt's new email commandments, as revealed by Art Net News:
- Multiple exclamation points are not allowed!!!!
- Using an exclamation point with a question mark is out. Wait, really?!
- No bolding of any words or phrases. You may underline for emphasis if necessary.
- STOP WRITING IN FULL CAPS. Capital letters should ONLY be used for proper nouns and the beginnings of sentences.
- Ellipses…should be used sparingly.
Speaking to the Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera, Schmidt explained his reasoning for sending out his email masterclass. "There are many employees who write well and many who don't. Everyone has to improve," Schmidt said. "Good writing helps everyone to think in the right way."
Can't argue with that…or can you???
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Now, this might make Schmidt seem stodgy and stuck in the past, but Art Net News reports just the opposite. The German museum director is widely considered to be one of the most innovative in the field and is credited with bringing new energy and excitement to the Uffizi, particularly to younger art lovers, per the outlet.
He's also given his team carte blanche with the museum's social media accounts and also minted several NFTs, selling one Michelangelo NFT for $170,000 last year.
Let's just hope blockchain has spell check.
