Before you forward that 'uplifting' email to homebound colleagues, think again

If you're lucky enough to be able to do your job remotely during the coronavirus pandemic, you may have been invited to participate in the Women's Leadership Exchange. It's an "email collective for an uplifting exchange" in which participants submit a personally inspiring poem, quote, verse or meditation. After selecting their inspirational statement, the participants are asked to email it to themselves and blind-copy 20 other female colleagues they admire.

If this sounds off to you, it's probably because you recognize it as a common chain email that has been making the rounds online for years. On your personal email or Facebook, you'd probably just delete or ignore it. But if you received it in your work email inbox from a work colleague, with your employer's name featured throughout, and read it with your brain in work mode, it might take you a few minutes to catch on.

I've heard from a number of women who have received this email from co-workers and professional network contacts multiple times in recent weeks. Most just deleted it, some describing the experience as annoying and "a colossal waste of time." No one has told me she has found it "uplifting."

Anyone who's worked with me knows I'm not one to get my lace hankie in a twist over a little subversive fun at work. What's the big deal about an innocuous attempt to spread a little positivity among colleagues during an anxious, uncertain time? After all, we're now opening meetings with "How is everyone holding up?" and closing emails with "Stay safe." Employers everywhere are emphasizing concern for their people, in marketing copy if not in practice. Embracing the human element in our workplaces (figuratively) may be one of the few good things to come from this crisis.

But here's why chain email, no matter how well-intentioned, is not the way to do it:

- It's intrusive. When working from home, it's hard enough avoiding distractions that siphon away our focus and energy without having to filter out time-wasters disguised as work matters.

- It's ineffective. When we're struggling at work, we don't need scattershot, prêt-à-porter platitudes. We need specific advice, encouragement or offers of help from people who know our situation, strengths and needs.

- It may offend. One person's inspiration is another's irritation. Some people draw comfort from psalms and hymns; others' love language is dirty limericks and Lizzo lyrics. Either group bombarding the other with their own particular form of "inspiration" is just asking for an HR intervention.

- It undermines women. Women are already expected to be caretakers, even at work. Presenting poetry spam as a "women's leadership" initiative is just adding insult to indoctrination.

- It's a security risk. Although this chain mail is benign, if annoying, some forwarded messages can carry malicious payloads. Social engineering spam and memes can lure people into revealing personal information. Scams like these have always been around, but they tend to proliferate during a crisis when people are most vulnerable. The coronavirus pandemic has been no exception.

- It's deceptive. We're bombarded daily by confusing, contradictory and even outright false information about coronavirus transmission, treatment and statistics via social media and even by public figures purporting to be reliable authorities. Do we also have to be on guard against misleading missives from our own colleagues?

This is not a call to eliminate all forms of compassion, sympathy and support at work. It's just a recommendation to maintain respectful professional boundaries so we can curb the growth of invasive messages that seek to replicate and distribute their contents to multiple unwitting targets. I'm sure there's a relevant real-world parallel for that somewhere.