Tone Deaf
Anger Management for Email

We’ve all been there.

You get a blood-boiling email from Ted in accounting—something about that long night of steaks and tequila with those Russian gymnasts not being a “pre-approved expense”—and you follow your instinct.

By firing off an email calling him out as the @#%-ing #%$@ he is.

But we’re here to tell you there’s a gentler way. A calmer way. A better way.

Step away from the keyboard and say hello to ToneCheck, a radical new program that will help you send angry emails only when you really need to, available now.

Basically, it’s like having a friend whose sole mission is to assist with (in the immortal words of Ice Cube) checking yourself before you wreck yourself... in email. You’ll start by installing the app (you need to have Outlook, at least for now), at which point you’ll toggle two settings. One is for negativity—basically, if you use anything from cursing to aggressive phrases like “third prize is you’re fired.”

The other is for, yes, positivity—to keep that chipper personality of yours at bay, this thing will let you know if your epic odes to Q4 planning are overly perky. (One trick: lay off the exclamation points.) Once you’ve got your settings, it’ll scan every email you send, and give you the chance to change any questionable sentences you might have almost sent—basically like spell-check, but for angriness.

For the record, this email had mild positivity.