I love the last week of the year. Most people take vacation. Not me. When work is slow, I like to be in the office. It’s when the office gets crazy that I take my vacation, because I know there is always someone else around to shoulder the burden. I’m a team player like that.
But regardless of whether you’re like me and you worked during the final week of 2010, or you took the week off, we can all agree that this week — when everyone comes back to work — is the worst of the year.
Lots of people are in bad moods this week. And what is one thing you never want to do when you are in a bad mood? Draft a work email or letter to someone who may be responsible for putting you in that bad mood. You see, I’m a firm believer in the “24-hour rule” when sending strongly-worded correspondence. That is, I draft the communication, file it away, and re-read it 24 hours later to determine whether I should really be sending it. Nearly every time, I trash it.
This rule has few exceptions.
Here is one of them. Enjoy and have a nice weekend!
UPDATE: David Lat at Above the Law shares a story originally reported in the St. Petersburg Times about two lawyers who did not heed my “24-hour” rule. If only I had written this post sooner. Oh well.