Thoughts on my overly verbose e-mail signature.

Kevin Schachter

Palm Harbor University High School / Center of Academics for Business Administration and Management a C.A.P.E. Academy

Business Technology Education – Department Chair

    *Technology Coordinator
    *Future Business Leaders of America – District XII Co-Director
    *High School Ethics Bowl – Coach
Industry Certifications:
    >Microsoft Office Specialist: Certified Master(Word Expert, Excel Expert, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access, OneNote)
    >Adobe Certified Associate (Dreamweaver, Flash, Photoshop)
    >Intuit QuickBooks    
    >National Retail Federation: Customer Service
    >Other: Time Management, Business Communication, Qualitative Problem Solving, Business Writing, and  Interpersonal Skills

    *PHUHS.org webmaster
     (727) 669-1131 ext. 1248 (email preferred)

“One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life. The most important motive for work in school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result and the knowledge of the value of the result to the community.” ~ Albert Einstein

CABAM Mission: Empower Success

CABAM Vision: To provide students with rigorous and relevant business concepts and skills, through education and experiences, that are vital for success in life.
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What you see above is my work e-mail signature. This is what appears at the bottom of every e-mail I send from my work e-mail account. It seems a bit (a bit?) much, and might even be seen as some to show some conceit, but I believe everything there serves a purpose.

Obviously, each item is intended to convey some tidbit of information, but, more importantly, taken as a whole, it serves to remind me of a number of things. Primarily, it reminds me why I always seem to be so busy when I am at work. Additionally, it reminds me of the things that I need to be focusing on while at work. I occasionally consider trimming it down a bit, but inevitably end up not doing so, and even find myself adding items when I do edit it.

What I have really noticed about e-mail signatures is this: beyond the name of the sender, and checking to see if there is an interesting or at least mildly amusing tag line or quote, I don't think anyone really reads or pays very much attention anything else in an e-mail signature. So they really do serve in effect as personal reminders.

Among the reminders for me are:

• That while my program is a CAPE academy, we are not yet a Magnet or Academy program. This would enable us to draw additional students from outside our attendance zone and thereby further grow the program. I still have a lot more work to do to make that happen.
• That all of the industry certifications I have earned could probably enable me to make a lot more money doing something else, but there would be many other tradeoffs that I am not willing to make.
• That while I wear many hats, and perform many functions, each of these contributes minimally to my salary, but they all greatly increase the value I add for my students and for my school.
• And above all (referring to the Einstein quote), that there is a greater purpose to what I do, that I constantly need to keep in my line of sight.

Finally, I feel like that since I put a lot of thought and information into my own sign off, it causes me to pay a little more attention to how other people sign off on their own communiques. The more I examine them, the more I realize that you can tell a lot about someone's personality from what they do with their signature. Fonts, pictures, animations, quotes, titles, contact methods, certifications, organizations, signatures, etc. Each of these gives a little bit of insight into who is on the other end of a message. As technology causes more and more communication to become nonverbal, I think this is a good thing, as it can fill in many of the blanks that we might usually pick up from things like body language, facial expressions, hand gestures etc.

So take a moment when you have it; which if you're reading this I'm sure you have plenty; to look at your own e-mail signature, and see what it says about you, and if that really is the message you are intending to send. (If you don't know how to customize your signature, click here for assistance.)

Feel free to comment with either your own thoughts on e-mail signatures in general, my e-mail signature, or even paste your own in the comments. Thanks.