Why can't the executives at my job spell?

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 15:37:08 -0800

I've just now received one of countless pieces of gibberish email from an executive at work. Why is it that the more money someone makes, the less able they are to write even a semi-coherent message? This isn't necessarily a rhetorical question -- I even seem to recall reading an article in the past couple of years that discusses this phenomenon. Across the board at my job, most of the emails I receive are perfectly literate; sure, there are a few typos here and there, and of course some people are just clearer than others, but overall people seem generally capable of writing clear sentences in something resembling English.

When it comes to upper-upper-management/executives, though, most messages look like they've been written by some 13-year-old typing a text message with her elbows. Messages such as the one I just received, which reads (and I quote): "cni hv ltimg fo vrohcrNOE plst/x" After 10 minutes and 3 phone calls, this was determined to translate as "can I have the list of images for the brochure now, please? Thanks." (Of course, I then got upbraided for not responding to the request immediately -- even though the original message might as well have been written in Mongol for all the sense it makes.)

I've consistently noticed this phenomenon for several years, and I've noticed it among several different muckety-mucks (male and female alike). Other people who work at my job of similar ages (50+) all seem capable of writing perfectly understandable email messages (thus it doesn't seem to be a generational thing), so why can't most of the executives? Is there really something about earning mid-six figures that makes people figure "fuck it; I'm so damn important, it's up to all the peons to figure out how to read my emails"?

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Why can't the executives at my job spell?