Perhaps understandably, she thought that by using capital letters, her fellow employees would PAY MORE ATTENTION to her missives than if she used regular, lower case.

An employment tribunal also heard that Vicki Walker behaved “provocatively” by highlighting the REALLY IMPORTANT phrases in bold or red.  In one office-wide email presented as evidence she had typed in bold blue letters: “TO ENSURE YOUR STAFF CLAIM IS PROCESSED AND PAID, PLEASE DO FOLLOW THE BELOW CHECK LIST.”

She did say ‘please’ though, which I don’t think is shouty at all.  Mrs Walker said that it was “ridiculous” to describe the email as confrontational, arguing that she was only trying to ensure that her colleagues filled out their forms correctly.

So what is it that we find so offensive about receiving emails peppered with upper case, bright red, bold and underlined instructions? I’ll admit, I think it’s imbuing your own communiqués with a sense of urgency and importance they probably don’t deserve.

Regardless, Mrs Walker was awarded £7,000 ($17,000 NZD) after the tribunal found that she had been unfairly dismissed, as her employer had no email style guide, meaning employees couldn’t be certain about what kinds of communication were deemed unacceptable. But how many companies have email style guides?

Perhaps this may be the safest course of action for some companies.  According to the Daily Telegraph, over-familiar or misjudged emails to clients can costs firms tens of thousands of pounds in lost orders. Quite often I will receive emails from PR executives dotted with smiley/sad faces and even kisses. But I just put that down to them working in PR, and move on.

However, the folks at Microsoft reckon that breaches of unspoken internet etiquette can cost companies in terms of lost orders and offended clients. Last year it teamed up with a British finishing school to compose a ‘netiquette’ guide that explains what is – and isn’t – acceptable behaviour in the internet age.

Since the dawn of email there have been incidents where the recipient has misunderstood a sarcastic or flippant comment, particularly where that good old breakdown in communication happens somewhere over the middle of the Atlantic.

Common mistakes consist mainly of failing to separate personal messages from corporate communication. This includes sending over-familiar emails, making bad jokes (who hasn’t done that?) and flirting with clients online. Less fun that way, you’d imagine, but still a problem, apparently.

Email etiquette is clearly a minefield, which it appears companies will have to navigate very carefully.

Christine Horton is editor of PC Pro’s sister site Channel Pro

Now there are already some sites that cover email etiquette, but as their advice tends to be along the lines of “DO NOT WRITE IN CAPITALS” I think it’s safe to say they’re not targeting the more experienced of users.

I’m starting off with a more complicated one: when you send someone an email, and they send you one back with the answer, do you reply to thank them? It’s a tricky one. Risk appearing rude and ungrateful, or adding to people’s considerable email burden.

My conclusion: reply, but be brief and don’t give them any reason to send you a reply back.

Number two is related: if someone sends you an email, but you know it’s going to take you a day to reply, do you ignore it until you can send a meaningful reply or send an immediate acknowledgement?

Again, I go for brief acknowledgement, but I know others disagree.

So what do you think? Am I alone in even pondering these things? Should I, just maybe, get a life? Feel free to send in your own email etiquette suggestions… and indeed various forms of verbal abuse.