I remember a story one of my old bosses told me, she sent out an email to her team and some peers about a new process, and just before she was about to go home she noticed a response from her peers was “I resent your email”! This angered my boss, so she fired off a diatribe to her colleague, telling him what she really thought of him and “how dare he respond in such a way” etc. Having sent the email she left the office and drove home, still dwelling on what in her original email was so controversial that it would cause feelings of resentment. It wasn’t much later did she realise that the person meant “I re-sent your email”.

This teaches us (apart from always use proper grammar when writing emails!) to never respond to an email that got you angry whilst you’re still angry. Whether the email was sent to annoy you or not, all you’ll do is assist in de-railing the conversation. Behaving like the keyboard warrior may be a cathartic release, but it’s not going to resolve the issue. If you must, write the email you WANT to send, then delete that one and write the email you NEED to send to get the conversation back on track. You’re the professional one here.