A client recently told me about an email that caused a bunch of tension and lost productivity in their office, much to their confusion. I can’t share those details with you but I can tell you how it started. You’ll recognise it straight away.
The email itself wasn’t rude. There were no personal attacks. It should have been a simple thing. It was longer this, but to cut a long story short (for Apples), it started with –“Per my last email, I still need the report by 3pm today.”
Read – I’ve told you before, I don’t want to tell you again and yet here I am.
So, for Apples, not a problem, including the one who wrote the email. Seems perfectly reasonable. Clear. Direct.
Bananas will be thinking they’ve done something wrong to be spoken to harshly.
Limes may be irritated to be reminded when they were already on the case. Don’t they think you can do it?
And in Mango’s mind, “Chill out, I’ll get it to you when I’m ready. Don’t overcomplicate it by hassling everybody.”
One email and one person was upset, one annoyed and one avoiding the whole thing completely.
Most workplace communication problems aren’t communication problems at all. They’re interpretation problems. It’s that thing that gets in the way all the time – we see everything through our own lense.
Right now workplaces are obsessing over AI, automation and productivity tools, and they have reason to — but teams are still falling apart over email tone, unclear messages and personality clashes.
The Apple thinks they’re being efficient.
The Banana thinks they’re being harsh.The Lime thinks they’re not trusted.
The Mango thinks they’re killing a relaxed and fun vibe.
Nobody is necessarily wrong.
Just different Fruit interpreting the same message through completely different filters.
And until teams understand that, even the shortest email can accidentally start a war.
