Unilever is urging staff to think before they send e-mails

Garbled syntax, tortured grammar and poor punctuation are increasingly facts of business life, the London Business School publication says.

And according to some experts, the rise of e-mail is also leading to bosses becoming ruder.

Unilever is already putting its staff through writing courses and urging them to think before they press the send button.

"Senior managers are getting between 300 and 500 e-mails a week and a brusque tone is setting in," one trainer told the BBC.

No secretaries

The main reasons for the sloppy language, which would send many literary purists reeling, is the demise of the secretary - who used to check for spelling mistakes - and time constraints, the Business Strategy Review said.

The publication quoted a study of 1,200 executives by academics at the Goizueta Business School in Atlanta. It found that more than half spent two hours per day answering e-mail at work - which equates to about four months a year.

As a result of lack of time, language is becoming compressed.

Please becoming pls is just one example.

The rise in e-mail comes at a time when, according to Business Strategy Review, there is a growing need for executives to ensure that their communication is more direct and personal.

"Issuing an edict is not an option. Instead, managers must increasingly rely on persuasion - and inspiration," the publication says.

"This requires a more sophisticated style of communication, one that is directed at the individual and imbued with emotional context as well as content."

Does your boss send you rude or ungrammatical e-mail? Use the form below to tell us about it.

All the sugar-coating has evaporated from my boss' communications with the advent of email. Abrupt commands are issued in poorly-spelled, unfocused emails with what can only be described as a 'ballistic' approach to punctuation. They're so unclear that it usually results in several follow-up missives to clarify what's going on. What is more irritating, though, is the compulsion of most managers to "Cc" me in on random messages to random other people concerning tasks that don't ostensibly involve me in the slightest. It's dressed up as 'keeping me in the loop', but in reality acts as a rude bombardment of unrelated junk mail that no one actually sits down and talks about.
Mark Thomas, Staffordshire, UK

I quite like sending blunt emails to lazy colleagues who haven't done their job properly. E-mail grants the freedom to say exactly what you want, in a manner befitting the cause, without having a heated confrontation. Sometimes you need to be a bit rude to get through to people!
beck, cardiff

My boss tends to just forward her work on to the rest of us by email. The only elaboration is usually something like "Can whoever do the necessary?". One of us is then expected to step forward and do her work for her.
Bartholomew Cribby, Manchester, UK

I found that my previous manager would just reply 'yes, fine' to something - which would be ok, but quite often I would have done her a favour to which thank you would have been nice. I really object to people dropping please and thank yous, even if the spelling is wrong/compressed at least it shows a small amount of appreciation.
Dawn , UK

I used to call them "snotograms", thankfully Outlook has a Rules Wizard that lets you consign e-mail from your boss straight into the Delete Box (used to call it the Bozo Button)! Trust me, once its sent, they never think about it again.
Brian Acott, Arkholme, United Kingdom

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