Be Careful What You “Say” in Writing

Gordon Graham here with Today’s Tip from Lexipol. And Today’s Tip deals with being careful what you say, in writing.

You can delete or double delete all you want, but anything you’ve typed is still on that machine somewhere.

Most of us are pretty good at watching what we say when we are in front of other people.  Oh sure, we’ve made mistakes and said things we regret.  I certainly have had to take my shoe out of my mouth on occasion.

But, this is not what I am talking about.  I am talking about being careful with what you say in writing.  We know we shouldn’t say anything derogatory or unprofessional when someone is around us to hear. So why do we write these same comments in e-mails, on in-car computers or text messages?

We’d like to believe that if we write an e-mail it will remain private. We love to think that nobody will see the comments we type on our in-car computer. We really want to believe that the text we send our best friend will never get viewed by anyone other than who we sent it to.

I may be dating myself, here, but back in my day if something were put in writing that we later decided shouldn’t be seen by anyone else, then we’d put it in the shredder. Guess what. Computers don’t have shredders.  You can delete or double delete all you want, but anything you’ve typed is still on that machine somewhere.

With very few exceptions, everything we write can be discovered for the world to read.

If you wouldn’t say it to someone, don’t type it.

Remain professional at all times. Keep your messages business-related and you won’t have to worry what someone will say if they read what you “say”.

And that is Today’s Tip from Lexipol. Gordon Graham signing off. 

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