Are Aggressive, Confrontational E-mails to Managers Ever Effective

While regularly reviewing documents and e-mails as part of case files, I run into mind boggling e-mails from employees to their supervisors. Here are a few examples:
 
(1) In reaction to a paycheck that didn't include reimbursement for expenses, the employee rights: "I will not tolerate being screwed out of my expenses, and I demand to be reimbursed by the end of the business day tomorrow." 

(2) After being accused by a co-worker of harassment and before the investigation into the allegations was even over, the accused sends an e-mail to his boss: "I can't believe you all ganged up on me. I am not surprised by this back stabbing and I can't way to sue the hell out of you."   

(3) After being denied raise, an employee sends the following memo to her manager: "This company's ungrateful ways are very disappointing to me, and I am seriously contemplating taking legal action, as I am the only African American who has been denied raise to the best of my knowledge." 

I am not sure what made the writers of the above think that they could possibly benefit from this type of aggressive communication. I doubt that any employee has ever gained anything from any kind of harsh or threatening communication with their employer. If nothing else, it is counterproductive to trying to resolve any type of dispute - however small or large it might be. And surely no employer has ever promoted or extended any kind of gesture to an employee because that employee criticized them, accused them of some type of impropriety, threatened them, but many otherwise good employees were fired for this type of language.   

Before you send your next passionate e-mail to your manager about all the work issues and frustrations you are dealing with, read your message and ask yourself - will the reader want to help you after reading your message or will he get angry at you and will want to retaliate against you by looking for a reason to punish you or even fired you? Does your e-mail complaint accusations that you don't really know for sure are true? Is there anything else in the e-mail overly presumptive or insulting that might be worth removing? 

Making sure that you use proper language and tone in your e-mails to your management doesn't mean that you should sit quietly and tolerate harassment, discrimination, retaliation or any other type of bad treatment. However, this does mean that your communication style should be civil and diplomatic at all times, even when you are complaining of these very issues. 

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