Can you still remember how we worked before the days of ­e-mail? Or are you one of the Generation Millennium, the ­people born about 1980 who have never known life and work without electronic media?

So, to refresh your memory or as an explanation: Before the dawn of the Digital Age, letters were dictated or written by hand. The secretary spoke to the boss, asking who was to be sent a copy of the letter and how the subject line should be worded so that it would be possible to find the letter again when it had been filed.

Today, even high-ranking managers and experts write their ­e-mails themselves – and no one escapes the consequences. ­Whereas training programs on the right way to use the telephone and etiquette seminars teaching good table manners are all the rage, guidelines for writing e-mails are obviously unable to command the respect they deserve. At the latest, you start thinking about them when dealing with the next e-mail from your colleague drives you to the brink of despair. But: a lack of transparency is not always the fault of others!

The lack of transparency lurks in the mailbox

Here you are, desperately looking for the e-mail about the offer with provider XY in Switzerland from last January because the terms and conditions need to be modified once again. Unfortunately, using these key words for a search in the subject line does not turn up any results in your electronic Outlook archives. You are annoyed with yourself because you evidently did not file it right away, and the e-mail is still stewing in your inbox. You must have received the offer from Ms. Müller ... wait, she was on ­vacation in January ... then it was her representative, Mr Schmidt ... You can’t find anything under Müller, under Schmidt, under Offers Company XY, Switzerland. You have no choice but to go through all of the e-mails from last January. When you finally find the right e-mail, you can be absolutely sure that it is from Ms. Meier, Ms. Müller’s secretary; you did not receive it until 8 February, not in January; and the subject line reads, “Polish offer out of the race”. The message contains the remark that you are being sent the offer from the Swiss company “FYI” as an alternative because the Polish company is not able to meet the requirements. Moreover, the proposals for modifying the terms and conditions are here as well. But the chain e-mail comprises six to eight e-mails from the sender’s colleagues containing contradictory proposals. So you write a snippy e-mail to the sender and demand to know what the most recent status for the terms and conditions of the offer really is. Welcome to the daily madness we create for one another in the form of e-mails!