Corporate Email Woes
I am usually a strong believer in the theory that an email that has been sent will also arrive in my inbox. Emails just don’t get lost just like that, even though every now and then someone may claim it happened. In all honesty, I too have claimed to have sent an email if in reality, I forgot. In the past, it was an email to my Mom to send her a photo, recipe, or something - I am pretty sure I am not the only one who has used this white lie.
Now, when it comes to business email, it’s quite different to me. The information or attachments in a business related email is usually critical to a job or a project and can have consequences. For example, if I receive a set of strings, I usually tell my developer that he can expect them back by the end of the week. My freelancers are usually very fast and I am able to estimate how long it should take them. They will let me know if they cannot make it within a reasonable amount of time but I don’t expect them to confirm every email I send. At their own discretion, they reply with an estimated delivery date or they just return the files. Considering the previous premise that emails reach their destination, I think it works fine both ways. Both sides cut down on the chit-chat back and forth a little - it’s not like we all don’t send enough emails anyway.
Unfortunately, my system has been shattered by our new overzealous email filter system. All of a sudden, emails I send are not going out, I don’t receive emails that my freelancers send - and the notification system is lacking to non-existant. First, my translator returned a translation in TTX files on Thursday. On Monday, I carefully inquired if he had received the files to which he replied he had delivered on Thursday. Quick check whit IT, of course it got caught in the mail filter because of “inappropriate language”. Haha, that would mean that either the help system contains foul language which it doesn’t (especially not since I was able to send the file out fine) or a word in the Spanish translation happens to match an English term which is on the index. No one knows, I was told there is no log listing which word was the offender. A few hours later, the translator received a note that the email he had sent Thursday could not be delivered.
Then all of a sudden, we cannot send or receive compressed attachments anymore - yes, a regular zip file is held back because who knows what’s in it. And again, no one gets a notification. The sender believes it went through, the receiver has no idea anything was blocked and the lonely email is sitting in quarantine. Apparently, this is now handled on a case by case base and the IT department checks the emails with attachment and patches them through if appropriate - a system which apparently doesn’t work very well. The reason by the way is protection against viruses I was told.
Next thing, the SDL Trados Synergy translation packages are blocked - same with the zip files, no notification, they are just quarantined. The packages are pkzipped so the system recognizes them as zip files and blocks them. At least with those, we found a solution because of the unique file extension they could write a filter rule that allows stppk out and strpk in. But even one of those was blocked recently again becasue of offensive language.
The whole thing is a major pain now. Not only do I have to confirm all email people send to me, I also need the translators to confirm they received my emails until IT gets the out-of-control email filter configured properly. In between, I also got mocked by an IT guy for being a “troublemaker” because I insist on receiving my email. Yeah, the audacity - I insist on receiving professional business emails sent by associates. Not sure if he was kidding, but I do believe before implementing a system like this, it should be looked at a little closer. I don’t even want to know how many customer emails got lost.
I am sure some freelancers have wished for an IT department that takes care of all the computer woes. Believe me, it really doesn’t work like that - woes sometimes aren’t eliminated but created 
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4 Responses to “Corporate Email Woes”
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“Emails just don’t get lost just like that…. ”
?? Like Hell they don’t. Unfortunately. Sure, there are people who make that excuse. But I have seen enough incidents of mail getting swallowed and disgorged days, weeks, even months later… or never (so far). On some occasions I’ve sent a delivery, then re-sent it when the client calls to ask where it is (usually forwarding the first mail so the “send date” can be seen. The original mail has then often shown up at the same time or hours or days later.
Your e-mail passes through a number of intermediate servers on the Internet. Problems at any link in this chain can cause loss or delay of data. One time I actually managed to trace the delays to a major virus incident at an ISP. Most of the time the problems remain a mystery. I keep mail addresses active on multiple servers for those times when the routing between one of my mail servers and a client’s server is disturbed somehow. Using an alternative domain usually solves the problem.
99.9% of the time - maybe even more often - mail traffic works fine. I see these problems with perhaps half a dozen messages in a bad year. Unfortunately, the problems do sometimes occur when it is least convenient and one is on the road when the panicked call comes….
Actually, that is exactly what I mean. Emails just don’t get lost just like that, there has to be a major incident at the ISP (like the virus you mentioned) or a rigorous spam filter setting for emails to get lost. I believe the number is higher than 99.9% - I probably send around 20 emails a day and receive about the same amount. That’s approximately 10,000 work emails per year and I don’t think I even have 5 email issues a year (until this new email filter hit me).
Maybe I am just really lucky with my ISPs and email system - not sure if I mentioned it before, but I believe I have good computer karma
One way to get around these problems is to set up a secure Web-based file-sharing service. There are several sites out there that will do this for you out of the box. You give each translator an account, and now you can post files for the translator, and the translator can post back the translations.
It also gets around the limitations that a lot of email accounts place on attachment size.
…of course it got caught in the mail filter because of “inappropriate language” …
Ha! Reminds of that public service ad on TV, “Don’t be a Patsy!” :))))