Professionalism

Working in the line of work that I do I send emails, lots of emails, and everyday I find myself thinking the same thing at least once.

Why do people not seem to grasp the fact that their email address has an impact on how they will be percieved by others in a professional context?

I understand when I am quoting a 17 year old kid that I may run into an email address like snowboardpunk1994 (yes people born in 1994 can drive now, scary isn't it?) or the like. My first email address was chaoslord99 for christ sake (and I really was neither chaotic or a lord of anything in 1999 "I don't care if they're facist anarchists it still doesn't change the fact that I don't have a car" <---that really didn't have much to do with anything), anyway what was I saying? Oh yeah, I remember now...

What drives me crazy is when I run into someone who is a doctor and has the email address "crzychick", or a business owner using something like "hemilover65". There is no reasonable explanation for not having an email address that either A) is your name @ someplace or B) is directly related to the name of your business or your occupation. Email addresses are easy to get for free, chances are your name is available, and chances are if you work in any sort of actual profession you are GIVEN a professional email address.

If your email address is joe.smith@bigaccountingfirm.com I will respect you more than if it is golf4life@hotmail.com, I know it shouldn't matter, it's the person behind the email, "honest she has a great personality", I get all that...bottom line is it does matter, so stop it.