how to be a good coworker

A typical email I might get from a coworker might go like this:

Hi [my name spelled wrong],

Can you tell me about [some feature or bug]? It is really important.

[name of coworker I’ve never met]

This is the kind of email that will raise my ire. Now, I will present to you an email that will get you both a quick response to let you know I’m going to help you, followed by a detailed email that gives you precisely what you want to know:

Hi [my name spelled correctly with hyphen and capitals all done properly],

My name is [your name] and I am a [your position name] in [department/group]. [name of referrer] told me that you might be a good person to ask about [thing you want to know]. I am currently working on [project or problem you want to solve] and would appreciate your input. If I should be asking someone else about this particular issue, it would be great if you could tell me who to speak with.

Can you tell me about [some feature or bug]? My interest in it is [whatever] and my timeline is [something]. More specifically, [specific & detailed question(s)]? [Add any special circumstances or details here.] This has been flagged as a [high|normal|low] priority item by [exec/management/support/escalations/project manager/etc]. I would appreciate it if it would be possible to get back to me within [a day|week|whenever]. I understand that you are busy so I really appreciate any help.

Thank you,
[your name]

If I could force everyone at my company (and any other company I ever work at) to follow this format, I would be so happy. If I ever work in management, I will drill new employees with the importance of being polite, detailed, and appreciative of their coworkers. It just gets things done faster and makes people feel better about their working environment.

I think this goes back to the issue of communication. The first email example doesn’t do its part to communicate crucial information to me. It forces me to ask all the questions to fill in the blanks. I’m perfectly willing to do that, but it wastes an email cycle, when it could have been made clear from the start. It wastes my time, and because it irks me and doesn’t tell me how urgent it is (and who thinks it’s urgent), I generally assume that what I am already working on is more important/urgent, because I know my schedule in general is fairly tight. Come on people, do your half of the work. Since I’m gonna be giving you all the answers you need, just get off your butts and ask the right questions and give the right context.