You Can Recover From a Snippy Email, But Prepare to Grovel

The Wall Street Journal:

Stephanie Freeman recently wrote an email to a friend to say she missed her and thought of her often. The two women had previously made lunch plans, but they hadn’t followed through. Ms. Freeman added that she’d still love to get together.

The reply? “You always say you are thinking of me but never do anything about it,” her friend wrote. “You are all talk and no action.”

Ms. Freeman, 45, got angry. “How dare she put all the responsibility of this relationship on me?” she recalls thinking. She fired off a reply telling her friend to be grateful that she thought of her in a positive way and reminding the friend that she was capable of taking action, too. She ended the message with, “Oh well, I’ll see you when I see you.”

Oops. In the heat of the moment you sent an irate email to someone you care about—and now you regret it. How do you repair the damage?

Psychologists say it is natural to lash out when we feel threatened. It’s our fight-or-flight response kicking in, where we respond to threats immediately, on an emotional level, by attacking or withdrawing.

Read the whole story: The Wall Street Journal