To not like "I hope this email finds you well" (or similar) as a professional greeting?

I use it, mostly because I just don’t have the social skills to come up with something more original. As a dyslexic I’m always conscious of making what I’ve written as clear as possible and limiting confusion. Someone should produce a checklist of things you should and shouldn’t say in an email I’d buy it. 😂

One of the guys at our ho writes

"I hope this email finds you well as always"

Annoys me especially as this last week I have really NOT been well.

YABU to take it so literally.

It's a modest, gentle, humane opener hoping the other person, at this moment in time, is finding life okay. Do you expect people to be blunt? Go straight into business? Maybe chat about the weather to be on safe ground? But what if the recipient is the victim of bad weather? What a linguistic minefield!

Perhaps rather than judging others for simple pleasantries maybe focus on why it triggers you so much. It's always easier to throw our anxieties out at other people rather than look inwards at, and process, our own triggers.

As they say, offence is taken not given.

I hate the phrase 'it just sets my teeth on edge." Boils my piss!

It's a very old fashioned and somehat nonsensical greeting really. Email's don't find anyone - they just arrive at the specified email address. Or are delivered to it. I don't think it's a very professional greeting and so would never use it in a work context. But, its also not informal, so wouldn't use it outside work either. Perhaps if I was contacting a distant, elderly, relative it'd be appropriate?

I agree it drives me mad!! I'm copied to all emails my team sends to clients and it's a stream of 'hope you are well' to the same person multiple times a day. If I feel like saying something I'll say something personal like 'hope you enjoyed your trip to x place' or 'hope x's football match went well' but otherwise I launch in.

I personally don't take it to literally refer to health, more so to general wellbeing and the person being ok, things going smoothly, kind of thing. Having said that I really don't have a strong response to it either way.

There are quite a few corporate greetings and sign offs that I read as "fuck you" 😁
This is one of them.

It's old fashioned, I'm old enough to remember it in letters, but not in business letters- it was the sort of thing I'd have put in letters to elderly relatives or friends of the family!

I don’t use it internally or to someone who I’ve never emailed before.

But there are some external people that I email a few times a month, and have done for years. Feels a bit rude to jump straight into business but I also find inappropriate to be too chatty. It’s a decent middle ground, IMO.

But that made sense. Someone who held her dear, eg Marmee or Jo, genuinely worried for her. But when it's a relative stranger, or a colleague you just chatted with in the corridor ten minutes ago?

I worked in a very autism-friendly job, with many ND clients, and always found it weird that some people used that phrase in their emails. It can be very confusing to ND people.

I use the same as you. In professional emails I do not hope people are well and I ignore it when others do. It doesn’t really irritate me though. Now people saying Hi on teams, then hope you are well….for goodness sake just tell me what you want!

Oh dear. I must have used that as a greeting on half a dozen emails I've written so far today. I'd no idea I might be pissing anyone off.

I genuinely mean it, I think it's nice and I like it when I get an email that starts that way. I use it to oil the social wheels especially when I'm approaching someone for the first time, and it usually precedes me asking them for something...

It's always internal emails, I work for a large organisation. I don't think I'd use it externally.

I use it where it’s someone I know but haven’t seen or spoken to for while and if it feels a bit rude just to launch into whatever it is. I wouldn’t say it to someone I didn’t know already.

Agreed, I just start all emails with ‘ skibidy bruh, here’s what I need’

cuts the crap. Who need to start anything with a hi, how’s it going? Slows it down.
boom

I moved from a “jump right in” kind of workplace to a “hope you are well” workplace. It was a bit odd at first and seemed like a waste of time but actually, the place had a much kinder, gentler culture overall and this was a reflection of that.

I use it all the time for emails on ancestry. Due to the nature of it - some of the recipients might have passed away or had dementia, (suprisingly common in my experience).
Or they might just not be in the place for doing geneology currently so it’s a gentle way of messaging I guess. They can reply once they feel like it - I’ve had relatives and people replying 3-4 years later!!

It seems a bit old-fashioned. It reminds me of Little Women. “My Dearest Amy, I hope this letter finds you well…”

Even starting with Dear is a bit weird if you analyse it.

Like, assistant head who I don't get on with, I'm not actually dear to you am I?

It's just meaningless gumph to ignore. I think professional letters in French traditionally have even more silly stuff like, "pray accept my distinguished sentiments". Just ignore it

So what would you use instead?