Remove the “Sent Mobile Device” Message From Your Work Email Address
In the United States, many adhere to the “always on” standard, whereby emails, text messages, calls, Slack messages, and even appointments follow you home after the work day is about to end. Some jobs even require workers to respond to emails and messages while otherwise busy with doctor’s appointments or caring for the needs of their children.
If you are not in the office, it is assumed that you should, at least in a way, still work, and that your managers should know where you are. As recently pointed out in a Reddit post , this is best illustrated by a holdover from the early days of mobile email – an email signature that reads “sent from my mobile device.” While the footnote is superfluous, it remains part of the charm of the corporate culture.
Although the novelty of sending email from a phone has long been outdated, this signature is still standard on many mobile operating systems. But it perpetuates an annoying notion of the overarching nature of work, which is what your bosses need to know if you’ve left the office. To this end, it is worth considering removing the signature completely.
Normalize being away from the computer
As one Redditor recently wrote , “Normalize your stay away from your computer.” It is important that employees and managers understand that you cannot be chained to the table (even figuratively speaking). As The Nation reported in 2018, “At first, a third of American employees devote 45 hours or more to work every week, and about 10 million spend 60 hours or more.”
This endless tedious job is only backed up by email signatures that at least seem to fix your short-term distance from your computer. But first, leaving your desk for a moment or two should be perfectly fine. The very existence of signatures “sent from my mobile device” or “sent from my iPhone” seems to offer an excuse or speculation that an employee has deviated from his job responsibilities simply by being left without a computer.
If you are not at your table, so what? The truth is, you will eventually return and be more than capable of answering any emails that await you.
No one needs to know where you are
You have been hired by your company and probably verified by human resources. If you shy away a little, your colleagues will understand that you are not robbing the bank. If you are not missing anything important, why insist on letting everyone know that you have left the building?
Currently, we can work from anywhere, anytime with Wi-Fi or sufficient cellular data access. There is no added benefit to letting someone know that you wrote your message on your phone, other than possibly saving face if your message is sent with typos.
Don’t make so many typos
I know this may anger some of you, so I apologize in advance. The reason you send emails with typos is because you don’t correct them carefully. I think it’s perfectly fair to have a signature that at least acknowledges that a few spelling mistakes may have slipped through the cracks. But you should probably ask yourself why you write emails so quickly.
If it’s unavoidable and just necessary for you to respond within seconds of receiving the email, it’s definitely a good idea to note that your response may contain an auto-correct error. If not, it involves a lot less unprofessionalism as long as you do your due diligence and send your message by reading it at least once.