VA email causes its own post traumatic stress.

Psychologist's "poorly worded" email sparks an investigation.

In what has become one of the more famous examples of email confusion gone awry, a Veterans Administration psychologist has been called before the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs to explain her directions in an email.

What did it say?
According to CBS news, who obtained a leaked copy of the email in question, the doctor wrote, “given that we are having more and more compensation seeking veterans, I'd like to suggest you refrain from giving a diagnosis of (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) PTSD straight out. Consider a diagnosis of Adjustment Disorder…”

What did she mean?
Senate investigators are concerned the psychologist was putting money before patients, directing doctors to prescribe a diagnosis of "adjustment disorder" that provides smaller benefits to the veterans than a diagnosis of "PSTD".

What does it mean for us?
Though cases like these aren't an everyday occurrence, they serve a grim reminder to each of us — quality workplace communication is essential. The legal fallout of one poorly-worded email could hit the bottom line, the public image and the author with devastating force.

While the investigation continues, the jury is in on a two-fold takeaway:

1. Your email could end up on the front page of a newspaper.
2. Unlike phone calls, meetings and some other channels, every email you send could live forever on some backup server (In many cases, it's required.).
   

With this in mind, it's difficult to imagine using email to convey anything that might be controversial. But we forget. It's human nature to slip into email's comfort zone. Hundreds of daily messages begin to blur the line between business and personal conversation. Before we know it, we're sending light conversation through a channel that could be construed with the weight of a memo.

Solutions for everyday emailers.

1. Important messages require important channels. Anytime you're about to send an "important" email, let that word set off a mental alarm. Would this message be best delivered in person?
2. Suggestions belong in meetings. Got a new policy idea? Think the group is headed in the wrong direction? Writing these thoughts in an email could be construed as a memo (and therefore, a directive). So keep your brainstorming live or, at a minimum, put your concerns in the form of a question. "I believe team A must take immediate action," reads a lot differently than "Should team A take immediate action?"
3. If you wouldn't say it, you probably shouldn't write it. Conversational tones and the appearance of distance between sender and receiver lure us into writing things we might never say. When emotions flare, email's false sense of security creates ripe territory for messages we later regret. Emotions are personal. Deliver them that way.
   

Luckily for us, we get to learn from others' mistakes. We can only guess that the VA psychologist in question wishes she hadn't hit send so quickly. After this incident, two things are certain: MacArthur said old soldiers never die ... and neither does email.

Read the whole story at CBS news