Checking Mail, Email, and Voicemail

GLOSSARY
inbox – an electronic space or a real box that holds emails, papers, and other things that one needs to read and respond to

intra-office – within one office or office building

inter-office – among many offices or office buildings

spam filter – the part of an email program that keeps spam, or unwanted emails, from coming into an email inbox

trash – garbage; a place to put things that should be thrown away or deleted

draft – something that one has begun to write but has not yet finished; an unfinished document; an unfinished piece of writing

1. The first thing I do when I get to work each morning is to check my inboxes. I go to the mailroom to check my mail slot to see what mail has arrived overnight. There are always a lot of intra-office and inter-office letters and memos. Much of it is junk mail, so I spend a few minutes sorting through it.
2. The next thing I do is to turn on my computer to check email. I open my email program and my new messages automatically download into my inbox. Even though I have a pretty good spam filter, I still check through my trash folder carefully to make sure nothing important was filtered out. We’re also not
   supposed to get personal emails at work, but sometimes my friends send or forward me messages to this address and I have to make sure I respond using my personal email address. When I don’t have time to finish a message or when I get interrupted, I save it into my draft folder.
3. Finally, I check my voicemail. I call the voicemail system and enter in my PIN to bypass the outgoing message. I have two new messages, and after listening to them, I save one of them and delete the other.
4. I look at the clock and it’s already 9:30 AM! It’s time for the morning meeting