emailing him back

I read over your entry, and wren’s remark, and am pondering now my habits of email communication. Not to defend them necessarily but to give the viewpoint of the emailer:

In face to face communications, no one knows what was really said. A slight mis-remembering or mis-cue can change everything.

So when I have something to get across to someone, I always put it in writing. If we have a ready opportunity to meet face to face I will take that too, but often that is not the case.

I like email because you know it was received. You know what you said, and so does the other person.

And even with everything spelled out, literally, if there is more than one of two ideas in the communication something of the meaning will be lost on the recipient.

Here is my experience in a nutshell: People hate being told what to do. they want to do things as they see fit. And they will continue to do things as they see fit, regardless of what they are told. So someone needs to either relax and accept the standards of another, or someone needs to find either other work or other people to do the work. Once this dynamic starts there is no turning it around.

TMI probably.