How would you feel if you received this email?

[SamCam349]

Is this (below) a nice email to receive? What would you think of the sender who wrote it??

‘I will reluctantly speak to you next Tuesday to attempt to address your discriminatory actions. As I mentioned last week, I, personally, do not consider you to be that important, and I would not be entertaining this call were your manager not also be participating.’

I think you have it spot on @Benefitofthedout

Things, not thinks

The email is not nice because it contains the words “I do not consider you to be that important”
The rest of it could possibly be justified if the recipient has behaved appallingly. But even in that scenario, there are better words and phrases to choose.

Yeah as pp say, it's definitely the email you write while steaming angry.

Then edit quite a lot before sending.

OP, I’d you are reading this before your meeting... if you did write and send the email and the subject comes up, tell them that you were discriminated against and that is against the law. What you put in the email was not illegal, just your opinion. You can acknowledge it was rude but not discriminatory. Your defences were up, and rightly so if they have acted illegally to abuse you, and you wanted them to know before you met them face to face you were not scared of them. Thus the “not important” part.

Completely inappropriate for a work environment. The bit about seeing someone as not important is just nasty. If received an email like that I would be taking it to my manager and HR. Hope you take this further as whoever sent this to you should be disciplined.

For those saying that whatever was said that was discriminatory doesn’t warrant that level of nasty in an email, don’t be silly. I could think of a 100 thinks that would anger someone so much they would send an email like that and it be deserved.

Oh I can think of things that deserve that level of rudeness. But, whatever provoked that level of rudeness may not have been witnessed and there may be no evidence of it, other than the victim's word for it. And the victim, who sent that email, has now left clear evidence of their own rudeness. It may well be justifiable rudeness but that's not how management and HR work. They will go on evidence. They have evidence that the sender of the email is rude and unfortunately they may well just act on that.

If you genuinely need to ask if that email was rude then you have bigger issues than you think.

This is a contender for the most ridiculously frustrating thread I’ve ever read.

If this is a work-related thing show it to said manager immediately, also if you're not in a union, join one.

Ii agree with PPs, that the OP is the sender.
Not a pleasant email to receive, but you are allowed your opinion. And if you dont think the other person is that important then you have the right to say it. You didnt say "you are not important" you said you personally didnt think they were.

Vanhi Yes, this is true. The saving point though is that it is rude, not illegal, and obviously shows a level of anger that makes you think something awful was done or said to the writer. It also shows immaturity, again not illegal.

If the person who was discriminatory was not witnessed and they lie about it, there’s not a lot that can be done. I’d rather be disciplined or died for being rude than being discriminatory. At least I stood up to them!

Fired, not died

Merryoldgoat

Look at the bigger picture. If that email was sent in response to a racial slur where someone had told you that people of your colour should be raped and killed, then the response is quite tame.

We don’t know the context.

I think the OP wanted opinions that we couldn’t give because we don’t know the full story but she thinks, in context, it wasn’t too bad to send.

Without the back story it is hard to respond OP.

I am assuming you sent this email after being on the end of some treatment that you considered discriminatory. It could be that the email was warranted, or maybe not.....

It's surprising that you were in any doubt that it would not be received as a hostile communication though

I don’t think it is ever, in a work context, acceptable to say that you consider a person ‘not that important’ no matter what has gone down.

I expect HR would agree.

It is rude, but we'd need the context before voting. I assume that the OP was the recipient because she said that the email being rude was not unreasonable.

The person that sent it has a very high opinion of themselves and a very low opinion of the recipient. It depends if the person who received it has a genuine complaint or if they are just pushing themselves into someone else's complaint. The sender is complaining about the recipient or their organisation discriminating against them.

Badly written, unprofessional and hostile.

I fail to see how anyone could see anything neutral about the email, let alone ‘nice’

I would post what I think but I have no idea what has actually happened, so pointless really.

EnriqueTheRingBearingLizard I read the OP’s Use of “nice” as being nice in the context, as opposed to “you fucking little piece of shit”.

It's pretty childish - makes me think of a playground spat between two kids. If OP is the sender, it makes OP look like a dick. If the other person is the sender, it makes him/her look like a dick. Either way, no one comes out smelling of roses in this scenario.

@Benefitofthedoubt

I’m not saying the email is unwarranted - it may well be entirely justified but it’s undeniably rude and to question that suggests the OP is being either disingenuous or has real comprehension issues.

I read it the other way round - the sender is the bully and pissed off about being taken to account for it.

but yes, it's not a nice email. totally unprofessional.

The email is clearly very hostile towards the recipient.

I’m surprised anyone couldn’t see that!

@Benefitofthedoubt without context we’re only second guessing what the OP means, or their role in this, but I see what you mean.

I will reluctantly speak to you next Tuesday a really unprofessional statement, while employees are not required to like each other they are required to remain pleasant and professional to attempt to address your discriminatory actions. if the recipient has been discriminatory to you or others it should be raised with their line manager to address. As I mentioned last week, I, personally, do not consider you to be that important and I would not be entertaining this call were your manager not also be participating.’ complete insult to the recipient and again a wholly unprofessional statement.

If the sender is the victim of discrimination they have really shot themselves in the foot by sending this email, and if I was the recipient I would raise a grievance against the sender.