Here are the top ten phrases and sentences to avoid, according to BuzzWhack.com:

1. “Can I see you in the conference room?” This one’s especially frightening if contact is initiated with a tap on the shoulder.
2. “Isn’t your performance review coming up soon?” No one likes being asked to defend how well they’re performing, especially in times like these.
3. “We don’t see this as a problem, but as an opportunity.” False optimism can be even scarier than the truth.
4. “I’ve always thought of us as family around here, but … ” But when the choice is between an employee and the manager’s mother, guess who the boss is siding with.
5. “You’re a great contributor, but … ” Compliments followed by “but” are a bad idea in general.
6. “Maintaining the status quo is no longer an option.” When your boss has to use a dead language to explain something, you can bet it’s going to be devastating news.
7. “We’re not planning to have layoffs, but there will be some restructuring.” No matter how often managers do it, using that euphamism doesn’t help.
8. “We’re going to refocus and concentrate on our core business.” What an employee hears: “We’re going back to the way things were before you were hired.”
9. “Due to the ongoing turmoil in the capital markets … ” No sentence with the words “turmoil” and “capital” have ever contained good news.
10. “They’ve asked everyone to come to the Employee Appreciation room for a 4 p.m. meeting.” News delivered late in the day probably means something bad for someone.

Can you think of any workplace phrases that have recently become off-limits? Share them in the comments section below.

Most managers love e-mail — it gives them an easy way to quickly communicate with large groups of staffers. But here’s the downside:

It’s easier for conversations to turn sour when conducted electronically.

Vanderbilt and Rice Universities conducted an experiment about the differences between e-mail and other types of communication. Two groups were placed in identical tense negotiating scenarios. Some people were told to talk via e-mail, the others face-to-face or over the phone.

Here’s how the negotiations turned out:

• The subjects in the phone/face-to-face group were able to work out their differences, but
• Negotiations broke down in the e-mail group, with conversations more often ending in anger and insults.

Researchers noted that e-mails don’t allow the writer to adjust the message based on the recipients reaction, and the lack of immediate back-and-forth conversation makes it easier for arguments to stew and get worse.

Do’s and don’ts for managers

What it means for supervisors: Some conversations are better held in person. Never use e-mail to avoid difficult discussions — most likely, that strategy will only backfire.

Experts recommend managers make the effort to dial a phone or hold a face-to-face meeting to talk about tense subjects, such as:

• discipline
• warnings about poor performance or mistakes in an employee’s work
• salary discussions, and
• changes to an employee’s workload.

Answer: Get the subject line right.

Given the number of e-mails people receive today, many are easy to ignore — especially as more folks use portable devices to peek at new messages while they’re on the go.

When the reader’s time is precious, your subject line can make all the difference. Here are some tips:

• Include as much info in the subject as you can. For example, instead of using the heading “Meeting,” try something like “Meeting scheduled for Feb. 10.”
• Create a new subject, instead of continuing a string of “Re:” messages. E-mails often go back and forth, but if you’re raising a new point or asking a new question, it makes sense to use a new subject line.
• Don’t leave the field blank. When firing off a quick e-mail, its easy to omit the subject line. But that’s also the easiest way to make sure the message doesn’t get read.

It’s no secret: Give employees a computer, and they’ll always spend some time on non-work activities. But how can managers keep productivity problems from getting out of hand?

Some experts warn against using strict computer use policies, monitoring and Web site blocking  across the board — if employees feel like the boss is watching their every move, morale might drop and productivity could actually suffer.

Instead, many say managers’ time is better spent dealing with individual performance problems as they happen and helping those employees get back on track.

When managers do have an easily distracted employee, there is plenty of free or low-cost software available to keep the temptation to procrastinate in check and teach some self-discipline.

Here are some of the best free tools available, recommended by CNET columnist Josh Lowensohn:

• E-mail Discipline — An add-on for the Firefox browser that makes a user earn the right to goof off at work. It blocks a list of Web sites, including Facebook, YouTube and personal e-mail services, allowing access for only a short period every two hours — making the sure the user gets some work done before taking a break to visit those sites.
• MeeTimer — Another Firefox add-on, MeeTimer keeps track of how much time a user spends on different categories of sites throughout the day. Employees can see what percentage of the day they spend on work-related browsing, personal e-mail, social networking, etc. — and may change their bad habits once the data’s spelled out for them.
• RescueTime — Similar to MeeTimer, RescueTime measures how much of the day employees spend on different sites and computer programs. There’s a free individual version available, as well as a subscription-based business version that lets managers view the total data for an entire team.
• HassleMe — This service sends free e-mail reminders to users about important tasks they need to complete. It’s perfect for little things that need to be done every day or every week, but are easily forgotten amongst everything else employees have to do.

Do your managers know how to avoid writing e-mails that lead to huge legal trouble? Here’s an example of some supervisors who learned the hard way.

A 62-year-old employee was fired and believed it was because of her age.

According to the company, she was fired for poor performance. The woman had been placed on a performance improvement plan (PIP), and her manager kept a record of her weaknesses dating back several months before the termination.

But when the employee took the company to court, the judge ruled in her favor. Why?

The decision hinged on one piece of evidence: e-mails sent between two of the company’s managers before the employee was placed on the PIP.

According to the judge, the e-mails made it clear the bosses wanted to fire her before there were any documented problems. First, one manager suggested letting her go in a reduction-in-force. The second felt that would open the door to a lawsuit and recommended making it a “performance issue.”

Once that evidence came up in court, the judge ruled age was the real reason she was fired.

E-mail creates permanent evidence

The lesson in this case for your managers: Everything they say in an e-mail is recorded — permanently.

Sensitive issues like terminations should never be discussed over e-mail. If an employee sues, those messages will end up in court — and there’s no telling how judges will interpret what they read.

Cite: Parks v. Lebhar-Friedman, Inc.

E-mails are never private and always permanent. That’s why it’s critical that HR periodically reminds managers to watch what they write.

E-mail slip-ups can often lead to lawsuits and create damaging evidence against the company. Here are seven big mistakes managers need to watch out for:

1. Venting frustrations about legal issues — It’s common for managers to be annoyed or concerned when they have to deal with employees on medical leave. But if they e-mail statements like, “I can’t believe she’s taking FMLA again,” it’s likely that message will end up as evidence in a courtroom.
2. Over-compensating for lack of documentation — In one recent court case, an employee was fired after he complained about age discrimination. After he filed a lawsuit, his ex-manager wrote an e-mail discussing performance problems and backdated it to look like it was sent before the termination. But the employee’s lawyers found out, and the company was hit with a whopping $46 million verdict for evidence tampering.
3. Discussing performance problems — Negative conversations are best done face-to-face — though about 17% of managers admit to using e-mail to avoid difficult discussions. E-mails can always be misinterpreted, and it’s easy for a manager to write something that may come back to haunt the company.
4. Using red flag keywords — Statements like, “Should we get a legal review?” or “We need an attorney” should never appear in an e-mail. To an employee or jury that ends up reading the message, it’ll look like the manager knew something was wrong and decided to do it anyway. Legal conversations are best held in person.
5. Not punishing employees for their e-mails — A lawsuit filed earlier this year accused the Secret Service of tolerating e-mail forwards with racist jokes. The lesson: Harassment and discrimination should never be condoned, but it’s especially dangerous when there’s a permanent electronic record of bias.
6. Making hasty promises — Managers should never use e-mail to discuss salaries, bonuses or promotions. If those decisions are explained in an e-mail and then later changed, that will cause serious problems.
   
7. Expecting nonexempt workers to check e-mail after hours — Nonexempt employees must be paid for any time they spend working — and that may include little things like catching up on e-mail while they’re away from the office. If managers make a habit of sending critical e-mails at night or on weekends, it might give employees the impression that they’re supposed to be working, too.

These six questions can help you create or revise a policy on telecommuting, according to Computerworld columnist Tam Harbert has some advice:

1. Can (and should) this particular person work at home? Some jobs obviously require the employee to be on-site. For others, it’s a gray area. A good rule of thumb: If people could go an entire week without leaving their desks, they’re probably able to telecommute.
2. How will you watch performance? This varies from position to position, but the important thing is for managers to know how they’ll evaluate employees before the company agrees to allow off-site work.
3. Will creativity/quality suffer? It’s not just whether or not work gets done that managers need to watch out for — it’s also the quality of employees’ work. With some people, motivation might go down the tubes once they’re in the comfort of their own homes.
4. What about collaboration? Even in jobs that can be done alone, communication with others is still necessary in most cases. Figure out how IT will keep people connected.
5. What about those that are “left behind?” Studies have shown that job satisfaction goes down for office employees with co-workers who telecommute. Making sure communication tools are in place is one way to help. Also, make sure telework privileges are handed out fairly and consistently to avoid grumblings about some folks getting favorable treatment.
6. Do you have an exit strategy? It’s not uncommon for companies to cancel telecommuting arrangements after deciding it wasn’t the best option. Make sure employees understand they aren’t permanently freed from the confines of the workplace. Things change, and you don’t want employees to think telecommuting is a right.

Often, it’s the workers themselves who are reluctant to skip the drive into work.

Almost half (46%) of workers said their companies allow them to work from home — but only 32% actually do it, according to a recent survey by Steelcase, Inc. Why?

One biggie: They don’t think it’s a smart career move. Of the workers who can telecommute but don’t, 71% said they think their bosses would worry about a drop in productivity and 64% thought they’d be skipped over for a promotion if they weren’t in the office every day.

They might be on to something: Half the respondents overall said they are in fact more productive in an office environment.

That’s a key bit of info for managers to note. As more employers offer the arrangement, it’s going to be important for managers to keep an eye on who’s getting the work done and who isn’t.

Make sure your managers know about these two pitfalls:

1. Discussing performance problems

It’s hard to get the tone of an e-mail right, and if a manager reprimands an employee through e-mail, it may sound more ominous than was intended.

That can lead to a backlash from the employee and make it harder to change his or her behavior.

2. Discussing possible bonuses and other salary issues

Privacy is never guaranteed in an e-mail, which is always a concern when discussing compensation.

Also, those kinds of things are best finalized in a written, physical document to limit the possibility of confusion.

That’s the word from a recent study conducted by R. Kelly Garrett, a professor at Ohio State University. The nuts and bolts of the study:

• “Everyone” uses the Web at work for personal reasons — from entry-level workers to senior managers.
• People surf at work to get valuable balancing their jobs other responsibilities.
• Taking quick breaks periodically to get personal stuff done helps employees focus more on job-related tasks.
• Installing filters to block some Web sites might backfire by lowering job satisfaction, and therefore, productivity.