You refuse to acknowledge that, in the case of TFA, the boss makes the rules. If he was paying her to only use pink paper, as someone noted above, then by golly, that's what she should have done.

You also seem oblivious to the (repeatedly explained above) empirical fact that all-caps text is harder to read. This alone would be a fair reason for an employer to make a rule against it. However, the concept of all-caps-as-shouting is not just "some made-up rule." When I first began reading the Usenet many years ago, I came to the analogy all on my own after suffering through the all-cap posts of some users. Am I somehow unwittingly responsible for having "made up" this "rule"? Uh, no. I obviously wasn't the only person who had this perception, and the majority of the online community seems to agree.

The only circumstance in which I would not consider all-caps to be a reflection of laziness, rudeness, and disrespect for the reader would be if no lowercase glyphs were available at all. This is rarely the case in the modern world. If typing is too difficult for someone to learn to do properly, then they need to find something else to do. That's not judging them as a person; it's a practical determination.

first-if one looks at what she was doing it appears that the people below her were not filling out forms correctly and if that is the issue her steps seem appropriate. using colours and bold type to emphasize what needs to be adhered to and complied with.

second-if her boss has such a dysfuntional section perhaps that boss is the one who should be let go

third-all caps to many people are not yelling they are just easier to read and are to make a point but not a yelling point.

people get over sensitive and put their values on to many things without looking at the other persons point of view today. so yes ageist may be a point to be considered here.

I don't know the whole story, but if this woman was warned, and still didn't get it, there should be no grounds for her to succeed in a lawsuit.

When the heck did we start catering to de-evolution of the human intellect?

I just think the "all caps" thing is absolutely ridiculous and I don't really care. We have people here at work that type in caps and it is just the way they type because they're not very good at it. The only thing that makes all caps "yelling" is inside your HEAD (the receiver). It's a psychological manipulation that you're allowing with yourself by thinking the "sender" is yelling. It's also very presumptuous to put that burden on the sender, when in fact it may not be the case at all. Let it GO! I thought all caps were an AOL thing that 13 year olds worried about, not us adults. People bothered by such annoyances especially at work either do not have enough work to do or need to begin focusing on the message's point and not the typing.

Of course, this comes from someone who re-reads and edits every email (and this comment) before sending. Email is not stream of consciousness, especially work email. That's what journals are for, which I also find myself editing until I make myself stop.

@Nicole: Zaner-Bloser.

To this day, he thinks that all of the internet originates at Hotmail, and that he has to go their first before doing anything else. He even thinks Hotmail is where his local computer files live. Sigh.

@diasdiem: Well that's part of the problem for people who are completely unfamiliar and uncomfortable with computers: they're usually only getting one sentence explanations. So they always have to ask for help again.

And I had to take a driving test before I was allowed to drive a car.

But you were still able to practice driving with a learners permit before getting the real license to drive on your own. You probably also had someone who knew how to drive telling you what to do while you were learning.

I have one now, but it's too damn heavy to lug around. I need a netbook.

At least someone finally has done SOMETHING about those pesky all-caps e-mailers.

I think the email that you are referring to was the straw that broke the camel's back.

I still want to know about the nap time.

* *cough* Michael Belisle *cough*

Please baby boomers. PLEASE. Go out like Seinfeld or John Elway - on top of your game. Don't make us force you out to pasture like Brett Farvre or Michael Jordan. It's not Gen Xers fault you're 68 and all your money was in stocks.

@BytheSea: I had to explain to my mother, over the PHONE, what a FILE was. Then I had to go into filename extensions and folders. It took me three days to decribe how to save a file to a folder, again over the phone. I think I aged a few years in that one week, just from frustration.

A signature doesn't need to be "legible" it just needs to be unique and quickly writable by yourself. That having been said, I've never written in cursive ever since they stopped forcing us to do so in school, probably because my family has had a computer since the mid-80s and I realized early on how obsolete the skill is when typing is faster, easier, and neater. Besides, the average number of times per week I need to handwrite something that will be read by a person other than myself is less than 1, and I can print faster and neater than I can write in cursive.

and yes, i know i don't use capital letters for everything outside of work. i have small hands and i type all day long so by the time i leave work i am too lazy to reach for the shift key. but hey, it's not shouting!

Unless its the case of gross incompetence you just can't go "You're fired!"

In this case you'd think that something like this would only warrant a written warning?

Consider that many employees were on the job before you were born. They never learned to type. We owe them a break - a grandfather clause that allows them to do what they want in their email, as long as they know how to send them and save them. There's a whole world of head wiring that you are assuming can just spring into being when confronted with new technology. My mother, who would be over 100 now, looked on her TV, phone, VCR and called her circumstances a "push-button fight for life". We all knew she would never make the transition to digital stuff.

And then there are the last adopters. What have THEY done to deserve your wrath? Must everyone be instantly conscious of e-etiquette or whatever you guys call that nonsense? They may have much more important things on their minds than how they should avoid offending you. Since I don't know if the readers of my email are senior citizens or beginners in the world of typetalk, they ALL get the benefit of a doubt from me. And I hope they enjoy it, since somebody is gonna jump on their case at any minute simply for doing their best at something that's not at the top of their list of mastered tasks.

I hope YOU'RE not guilty of ruler-snapping the knuckles of all-cappers.

One other thing - where are the revolutionaries in the x y or z generations? Nobody's for giving anybody a break these days. Very strange.

It also meant it was an adviser/student relationship and no grade to dock. If it were me - I don't think I'd have given up on the argument quite so easily though.

I seriously doubt this lady was fired *just* for going on cruise control for cool. And certainly the details may never come out - but my read on the situation is far different, and similar to another up thread - poorly documented claims and probably a lack of notice given the quick response between email and firing.

And this is no more stupid than many other norms, and actually has good purpose. Aside from the idea that it is shouting, all caps is much harder to read for the average person (which I'm sure you already know) and serves no actual purpose in use other than laziness or convenience. In a business setting, it has no place, particularly if the supervisor/boss/employer specifies such. Stupid or not, they get to make the rules (and believe me, I've met some that had stupid rules - soda in a can/bottle, not ok. Soda in a mug, even if it was poured from bottle/can, fine. No idea why - just that it's the rules) and employees follow them.

Email etiquette falls under People Skills, and that's a requirement under every job description I've seen.

Social norms can be, and often are, stupid. This one is particularly stupid.

We will never get the whole story about anything, from anybody. Based on the info offered here, the lady in New Zealand made fools of her bosses and officemates, for which I applaud her.

Just because so few of you agree with me doesn't mean there may be others out there who do or who actually permit new ideas to leak into their neural cells.

If you care that much about "long strings of capital letters", I guess that explains why you're here, expressing yourself.

I am a graphic designer. Most other people are not. I don't expect those others to have the same knowledge I have about this subject.

Hardly anybody reads or refers to the Chicago Manual of Style, and to expect everyone to do so is absurd.

So you are not disturbed by strings of capital letters? O....k.

Why in the world would they allow him to work for two weeks following such a grievous offense?

@Rachacha:

Background image? Damn right. It was cute the first time. 200 emails later I am not a happy person. I have been known to go all postal when I am not a happy person.

Scripture? Offensive. I am not of the same religion as you. Keep your comments to yourself, I will do the same and everything will be better because we respect each other.

One time I "offended" her by sitting in my car, in front of my apartment, in the fire lane, because my girlfriend forgot her cell phone. Next day, all-caps letter on the door about people parking in fire lanes and how she won't cry when our worthless crap goes up in flames because some inconsiderate jerk parked in the fire lane.

Nevermind the fact that I was behind the wheel, the car was running, and it took less than a minute for my girlfriend to leave the car, unlock the door, go in the apartment, get her cellphone, lock up, and return to the car. Unless I suffered a heart attack, was killed by an assassin, or the entire complex burst into flames in that one minute I fail to see how that would have been an issue worthy of a full-page all-caps letter.

Plus, I think the fire department has hoses long enough to reach around a Hyundai. At least, I hope they do...

She eventually moved on and the only correspondence we receive from the office manager now involves the monthly newsletter and yearly lease renewals, both of which are typed with proper casing and feature few errors in spelling and grammar.

@diasdiem:

Actually down South here we just shout out to the plantation and take the next available slave.

Sorry, but if you are going to mention orphan labor then I will retaliate with slave labor. Both are horrible practices.

However, you seem to be misreading me. I think a firing over this and this alone is both unlikely and silly (there's a lot of paperwork in firing and job searches, after all). It's just that an individual's desire to subvert a common convention doesn't confer any obligation on the rest of the group to oblige the individual's desire. Especially if the boss is with the group. You're free to type in all-caps whenever you like, and I'm free to draw opinions based on it, or, if you're doing it on my space or time, curb the practice. You don't have a personal liberty to write how you want on somebody else's dime or blog space.

I'm not clear what exactly you're asking about capitalization, but there's certainly some interesting history for emphasis capitalization if you're looking to read more about it. Obviously it's a print-origin custom that got translated to the internet, and it seems to have stemmed from the older practice of initial capitalization only (the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are a good time to see semantic capitalization and emphasis capitalization shaking out). All-caps is established in the early to mid 20th century as emphatic in American signage and as a volume indicator in comics. (Chappell's _A Short History of the Printed Word_ has some interesting discussion and talks about upper vs. lower case going back to Latin, if you're interested.)

If you're talking just about recent stuff, the good old Usenet FAQs and Netiquette guides include the proscription against all-caps. It's also in the Wikipedia Netiquette entry. That doesn't mean you gotta, of course. It does, however, indicate that avoidance of all-caps is, however, a common standard.

I'm not sure how using upper and lower case is somehow more laborious (to borrow your term) than the occasional use of the shift key (or brief on/off of the Caps Lock if preferred) - it generates perhaps 20 or 30 more keystrokes on the average correspondence, which hardly seems like a great concern (and in the example of the brief two sentence people from your earlier post, maybe five keystrokes), especially when one considers that there are other keys such as the question and exclamation mark that also require shift.

And that's not a knock on your friend who does all caps - it just goes against our social norms is all. He isn't the first to do it, won't be the last - but all the same, it is a social norm.

And no, I wouldn't settle the suit, but I also wouldn't just up and fire her for one use of caps lock - so I suspect that there's more going on here than Fox reported, but then again, that would be the norm for Fox, so. I certainly have trouble believing it was "too confrontational" after "nap time". The guy doing the firing sounds nutty when it's painted like that (and for all I know, he is). That doesn't mean he wasn't in the right firing her - there's a lot of info missing.

Moving on, I didn't say I was disturbed by strings of capital letters. I also didn't say anything else that you've mentioned. Who are you arguing with?

So I don't see how she won.

I work in a school, and a teacher got fired for taking his pants off in class, and he won a wrongful termination suit because my stupid stupid principal (who, thankfully, has also since been fired) allowed him to work with the kids for an additional 2 weeks before canning him. He (the teacher) won his suit because he was "not a safety risk", since he had been allowed with the kids for 2 week because the principal did not document the incident in a timely manner.

But, if she was repeatedly advised that this was not acceptable, I think it was justified because she was either trying to annoy, or just not able to take instruction.

I agree. It has little to do with the actual fireable offense, and everything to do with not following your supervisor's directions. While I may think it's stupid, if my boss insisted that all memos are to be printed on pink paper, that would be something I would do. And if I didn't there would be a process: reminders in supervision, note in personnel file if it still didn't happen, mentioning it on my annual review, etc. I'm assuming that she only won her wrongful termination suit because the supervisor did not dot all the i's when dealing with it.

Most people I know have the delightful line tacked on to their job description: "and other tasks assigned by supervisor,' which basically means "do as your told, or else."

"Failure to adhere to the standard is going to annoy people who are trying to be productive." Ruminating here... um, guess how they could become more productive. BY DOING THEIR JOBS AND LETTING THE ALL CAPPERS DO THEIRS! Is this really about annoyance? Wow. I didn't realize it was so miniscule.

People who don't adhere to a schedule on the job endanger the well-being of their co-workers. People who dress casually and don't wear girdles (kidding) don't endanger anybody, but can annoy the boss. They should work elsewhere. Okay, so that works for your side. I'm just happy I haven't been near a dress code in 30 years.

People who use all caps are guilty of absolutely nothing, and cannot be fired for it. Just try firing somebody for it in the US. Will we really be outshown in terms of personal liberties by tiny New Zealand?

She won. Get it?

Also, fun fact: Your profile pic is different here than it is on your profile page. Though i guess you have already noticed that.

Of course, they didn't call it "snack time", they called it taking "afternoon tea". Thank you, England.

I'm on a few mailing lists that permit me to see email from the entire spectrum of humanity. All-cappers MIGHT represent two or three percent. One is a brother who is, in every other way, brilliant. Of course many of the remaining 98% have been intimidated into pecking away laboriously in upper/lower in obedience to their MASTERS of CONCEIT out there.

Poor things. Balls. We need more balls. Like that lady in New Zealand. She KNEW she would win a tidy little sum for herself, because most judicial systems will recognize that she was dealing with know-nothing busybodies who were preoccupied with the piddling. Really. Would YOU not settle that suit LONG before it got down to business? Or would you be smart enough to get the other employees to straighten out their panties and get back to work before the thing even started?

But if you're at a job that requires you to communicate according to the standards of the office, the office gets to set the standards. The standards that preclude the above aren't universal, but they are pretty common, so it's no particular surprise to be presented with such a standard and no onerous duty to be asked to adhere to it. Failure to adhere to the standard is going to annoy people who are trying to be productive.

It's simply not relevant that you think it shouldn't because you like a different standard--what's important is the fact that it does annoy people, and that if that's not enough reason for you to change your behavior at company request, then you've become a problem. It's up to the company to decide whether your other virtues outweigh this problem. In the case of the NZ accountant, her virtues didn't seem to outweigh her flaws.

This just sounds like the arguments about whether prospective employers should think less of people for being late, or dressing casually, or...whatever. The point isn't whether or not they should, the point is that they do, and it's common knowledge, and it's not an employer's job to adapt to your standard.

@Trai_Dep:

Emoticons are fine. What really irritates me is the disemvoweling. May as well staple a "retard" sign to your forehead.

Certainly not in the case presented here, where the woman repeatedly sent out such emails and ignored the wishes of her superiors (whether or not it's a man created law, if your boss makes a reasonable request of you, it's somewhat insubordinate to not comply, especially if warned on multiple occasions). If sending out emails was as strenuous for her (or anyone) as you describe, I'm not sure they have any business working in a job that requires that (or perhaps anything at all, considering the relative ease involved in typing, even hunt-peck style). I'm having trouble envisioning such a situation.

I find the fact that "yes should should be fired"is winning in the poll by alot humorous. My boss types like this on her BB and I've lost track of the number of times I;ve told her to stop. Moreso, she does it to emails that have already been sent to both myself and her, puts "MAKE SURE YOU'RE FOLLOWING THIS" or something else redundant on the top, THEN forwards it again.

The use of all CAPS and colors in E-mail may be annoying, but I believe that there are things which should be addressed first:
1) The use of any background image or "Stationary" in E-mail should be banned.

2) The quoting of scripture passages or cutesy sayings in your E-mail signature should be banned (The exception would be if you are employed by a religious institution)

3) Ban the use of "Notify sender when recepient opens E-mail". Here is a hint senders...I disable all notifications being sent to you, so you will never know when I opened the E-mail, and I purposely save up your E-mails in a special folder, all unread, and turn on the notification and delete 500 messages all at once which will send you 500 seperate E-mail notifications letting you know that I deleted your messages without reading them.

(I am feeling especially bitter today.)

The shrug here is that apparently you and others here ALLOW this extremely minor foible to interfere with your well-being. I suggest you spend a month or so in Afghanistan to get your priorities straightened out. This is said with due respect and gratitude for your calm, well-argued post.

My apologies.

And if the writer doesn't intend to emphasize the entire email, what would the point of not using lower case letters be? Especially if requested to. I mean, if I don't have a specific reason for doing something a certain way, and my boss tells me to do it another, repeatedly, I'm gonna go ahead and listen.

Oh, and whether or not it's the equivalent of shouting certainly came about before the internet - we just adopted it from other correspondence and writings - novels and letters aren't written in all caps unless there's not an option or there's a specific cause for it. To argue that the law is man made is a fine argument, but is it any more valid than if applied to proper comma/punctuation use (which I'm sure I've violated at some point here) or capitalizing a sentence/proper noun? Both of those are also man made constructs, along with non-phonetic spelling, but they're also the accepted standard.

*shrug*

I can't help it if you are disturbed by all caps. I'm not. I don't think it is appropriate to judge people if they use all caps. It just doesn't have in impact that the "law" would consider obstructing another's pursuit of happiness. Etiquette is a joke; was for my generation, and certainly is for yours. So how do you get your controlling rocks off? It seems hassling emailers for their "styles" is one way. Boring, and a hideous waste of time.

I'd love to see your authority on the use of commas, BTW (oh, sorry).

@YouDidWhatNow?: I once has a co-worker who used all caps when typing and entering in information for our customer database. Luckily our system would let you know who entered the account information in by their login infomation. Even after being warned, he still did not quite understand the need to type in standard type. Having to be one of the employees to go back and correct each account (luckily our systems admin gave us a keystroke shortcut) I am extremely annoyed with people who only type in caps or who use unreadable fonts. Colors are sometimes necessary although they give me a headache, but all caps is just plain aggravating.

This no all caps thing will NEVER make it into the books, guys.

@itiswhatitis: Naptime.

I assume that anyone who's smart enough to figure out how it's done understands that with great power comes great responsibility.

@Michael Belisle:

I wish I could write in color :(

Yup, I do believe nobody who is of the age to have owned a typewriter that did NOT include lower case is now either dead, or is much older than the retirement age.

The only excuse I see for people who learned on typewriters is using all caps for titles or emphasis. Although, those that _really_ typed a lot would know to switch the wheel for an italics one for that, or use overstrike.

Made taking notes in college a little hard sometimes. I had to make up a weird style of note-taking so I could shorten it and remember what the hell the professor meant later.

Your other concern - that all caps means "shouting" - is, as you so guilelessly say, your "interpretation". You are free to choose another interpretation. If you let any interpretation prevent you from understanding the message, I have to consider that your loss, not mine.

That way, the chance people will listen to you rises to at *least* 5%.

It's just unprofessional and lazy to attach a document and email it to your colleague with:

hey here is that project file u wanted if you need anything else let me know. k, bye

@casey451: Are there portions of the legal system that were not created by humans?

@RecordStoreToughGuy_Has$240WorthOfPuddin': They taught it in my school over two years. One of them happened to be the year they changed the uppercase Q. Needless to say, I can't write a Q in cursive.

@diasdiem: We could all compile these into one and call it "MySpace".

Though it has gotten slightly difficult - thanks to me not being required to write all that much at all.

Bold and italics are better for emphasis than all-caps anyway.

If he wrote like this, I would feel sorry if he abandoned pen and ink for a blackberry.

signed, Flourish Curlicue

Any form of communication should be held to a reasonable standard of conduct. Sloppy or inappropriate written communication should never be tolerated.

Employee should have been terminated on the first offense.

I am glad that we have at will employment in the United States.

You can (and will) be fired for any reason (including excessive usage of CAPS) at any time.

I can't read things when they are in all caps. My brain just doesn't process it right. I also can't stand colors. I do put things in bold or underline words though but usually because most people just skim emails and at least they see what it kindof important.

..."fictional outsourcing company?" What, you mean it doesn't exist? Or do they write novels for other people?

THIS-IS-THE-USE-CASE-MODEL.doc

When I suggested "ThisIsTheUseCaseModel.doc" or even "thisistheusecasemodel.com" would be much more readable, they looked at me like I had 8 heads. I assume it's because English isn't their first language and all three files look equally unreadable in their eyes.

I once attended a meeting with 3 technical architects - who brought their laptops/crackberries. After about 5 minutes I told them I was sick of talking to three bald-spots and if they didn't put their toys away and make eye contact with me like a human, they could figure out how to give the bad news to the business on their own.

@itiswhatitis: THE REALITY IS THAT THEY ARE JUST SYMBOLS USED TO REPRESENT SOUNDS OF SPEACH WHY SHOULD IT MATTER IF THEY ARE ALL CAPS or all lower case. it doesn't really matter. but them i'm also the person who is pissed off that cursive writing is still taught.

These things are etiquette and they are important in the workplace. Why should my business related electronic communication be any less scrutinized.

I do not think these things are mutually exclusive.

@diasdiem: Wingdings.

Seriously. Why the fuck?

it's as though the people who populate this site know only one rule of etiquette. NO ALL-CAPS! As a graphic designer, I'm familiar with the received wisdom of that job about caps and lower case. All caps are appropriate for headlines, lower case is easier to read. NOTHING about ALL CAPS IS SHOUTING! This is invented by some anal twit out there with nothing better to do but boss people around and show off his/her deep interconnectedness with the internetiverse. And now it's come to THIS - a poor employee who understands that this obsession is complete nonsense and a way for others to exercise dominance over her is FIRED! JESUS CHRIST!

I love to blow off steam on the New York Times blogs, even though it does about as much good there as it does here. (I can dream, can't I?) Sometimes I don't get published which I understand when I tear a new one for M. Dowd. Other times it is a mystery, until I heard back from the Public Editor's assistant who explained why one of my perfectly civilized comments was not published. ONE WORD of a four-paragraph post was in all caps, as in "I wouldn't want even to know anybody who could THINK the thoughts expressed by this nitwit." (It was about that reporter who snarked the poop out of people who shop at Penneys.) Here's what the assistant said:
___________________________________

"I have no doubt that this will cause your eyes to roll, but it was rejected because it violates Times guidelines with the use of the all caps "Think."

The Times does not allow all caps because it is seen as shouting. However, it is clear you did not mean to shout 'think' but to emphasize it. Usually in cases like yours I write the reader and let him or her know that if he or she lowercases the word I would approve the message.

I failed to do so in your case and I apologize for that and for the delay.

If you resubmit your comment, with either a lower-case or italicized "think" I will post it right away.

I know this seems silly, but we have to be strict in order to be consistent."
____________________________________

Ridiculous.

@Digitizer:
I think a deaf person would still understand the concept of shouting and why it's inappropriate.

@pb5000:

...two very successful sales reps at a software company I worked at couldn't operate email, and made a secretary print everything out for them.

Please note the irony, in case you missed it, in that these guys were *successful* sales reps for a *software company* - and they couldn't figure out how to use Outlook.

I can see being written up for doing that - and possible fired if you continued to do that many times after being warned... but there must have been another reason.

@pattiesmart:
Agreed. If my company would allow me to do so, I'd totally fire someone for sending all-cap e-mails. So, so annoying and unprofessional.

@pecan 3.14159265:

Agreed. I know far too many people between high school and middle age that can't seem to grasp the function of the "caps lock" button.

I really have no idea what New Zealand's standards are for wrongful terminations also.

[www.apple.com]

Now he has more than one crackberry and a speedy little four-finger typing mode on a real keyboard. I'm so proud of my little techno-crack-head dad!

@tbax929: It's in another country, actually, so their rules may be different, but unprofessional e-mails are still unprofessional.

@itiswhatitis: *|SMARTASS_REMARK|*

@itiswhatitis: You could just utilize the scroll bar.

@pattiesmart:
Your post made me actually RTFA. I don't know how I missed that part about the lawsuit before! I guess I was so elated that someone finally got canned for that.

@HiPwr:
Agreed. If you didn't know any better, you certainly did by the time you'd been warned about it.

@MostlyHarmless: "And if someone does not change despite being educated about it, they have more underlying problems."

Exactly. I have to e-mail many higher ups. If I was unprofessional or rude in an e-mail, I could get fired, and why shouldn't I? I can get fired for walking up to smoeone and "YELLING AT THEM CONSTANTLY!" it's the asme damn thing.

@G.O.B.: Come on!: Army had a half-day.

And I would never, ever lie to you. Pinky swear.

Writing in all caps is unprofessional. I could see someone getting fired for being unprofessional if they didn't learn the first time they were told "cut it out!" So I don't see how she won.

If she were fired on the first offense, I say unfair. Or maybe even the second. But, if she was repeatedly advised that this was not acceptable, I think it was justified because she was either trying to annoy, or just not able to take instruction.

I have an underwriter who does this. It's so annoying. He acknowledges that people have complained to him about it, but he refuses to stop doing it.

I can see if you don't know any better, but why would you continue to do it after receiving complaints?

@pb5000: It's amazing how many persons under 50 years old are technology illiterate. I work with mostly PhDs (I'll leave a forwarding address for sympathy cards later), and one here is either 50 or 51 and is literally afraid of her laptop. While she doesn't print out every email, she does place all incoming emails in the deleted folder (assuming that it's junk mail - even though we have a junk mail filter) and then complains that she can't find a certain email that should've been sent recently. I've tried to help so many times that I've now given up.

Personal email is one thing, however when your writing emails for your professional career you need to watch the way you word your emails.

@MostlyHarmless: Consumerist is consistently guilty of this. I love it though!

I know how to write comments in italics and boldface, but can I write comments in red or blue on The Consumerist?

I don't think so, because I haven't seen anyone else do it. But, I just don't know!

We instituted a corporate e-mail policy when our company got e-mail for our management staff. Not writing in all caps is one of the points outlined in the document. I'm not sure it'd be a fireable offense for our company, but we do have signatures on file for all of our managers who signed the document that included the no "ALL CAPS" rule, so technically we probably could fire them for knowingly violating company policy.

What, you guys don't get naptime? I work for the Bluth Company, and Buster Bluth is my boss. We have snack time at 4 pm.

In any case, I think if using e-mail is one of the job requirements, e-mail etiquette should be one too. Though the company should also give offenders some guidelines about how to e-behave. You would not put up with someone who shouted all the time when speaking, and though shouting in text is not nearly the same thing, it however is still very annoying. And if someone does not change despite being educated about it, they have more underlying problems.

It's not ageist. Writing an email in all caps is ridiculously terrible, just like writing an email in chat speak or text speak. If you assume that older people are the only ones who would write in all caps, you're assuming that only teenagers write in text speak.

I guess those of us in between are left to handle the emailing with proper sentences and grammar!

But kudos to the Anchorman reference!