Colleague's fluffy language!

Another petty grievance - people wishing me a happy new year in emails beyond the first day back at work.

I’ve imposed a statute of limitations within my team, in a Larry David style.

People really don't like hearing that this type of language is judged. I don't really understand why.

If the writer turned up for work in pyjamas, reeking of BO and with unbrushed hair they would be judged. What they write is also a presentation of themselves which others will use to form an opinion.

Spookily one of my guys just sent this word bouquet out to a customer.

What annoys me even more is OOO replies and voicemails on 13 January which say ‘thanks for your message, I’m currently on annual leave and out of the office. I will return to work on 5 January and respond to your query then’. FFS update your OOO etc if you’ve extended your leave for whatever reason or just bloody well reply to my message 🤬

Yes indeed.

its like the current trend to say 'when did you both meet'
🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️.

Apologies. Out of office until xx:yy:zz

Please contact Jo Blogs on xxxxxx for any urgent assistance.

It's a little awkwardly verbose, but it gets the message across adequately and politely.

Would you have preferred her to just write "Bugger off!" ?!

I do this and I'm aware when writing that it sounds like i'm apologising for bothering me.

Sometimes I write 'How are you?" or "Hope all is well with you' at the beginning of a mail when I'm writing to somebody that I'm not in weekly contact with. It bothers me too as its meaningless filler and I know they'll unnecessarily respond in kind.

I've been accused (in different roles) of being abrupt so I make an effort to do the above. No idea what to say instead.

I am part-time and used to have my regular day off mid-week.

My OOO said “I don’t work on Wednesdays. I will respond when I return to work tomorrow. If urgent please call [number].”

Some senior colleague I barely knew once complained to my boss that my message was “too abrupt”!

‘Currently at this present time’ is a tautology, and very irritating. For me, this kind of language use creates a bit of a negative impression of the writer.

Just a different style. Maybe she thinks you are abrupt!

Exactly. Who cares?

Not everyone is skilled at writing crisp, to the point messages. We can look down on their ignorance in a disapproving way or we can feel glad that somehow, somewhere, we learned this important skill. Even the best writers need editors to trim things.

Urghh, makes me wince a bit when I get an overly solicitous, apologetic and wordy OOO. Some of my colleagues have ones like “I’m so sorry I’m not able to immediately respond to your email enquiry. I am currently on leave until xxx and while I will still be checking in on my emails periodically my responses may be delayed so please bear with me. If your query is urgent then my colleague xxxx should be able to help you in my absence………”

My OOO is ‘I am on leave [date] till [date] and will reply to your email on my return. Urgent enquiries can be sent to xxxxxx alternatively you may find the answer to your query on the knowledge base here - [URL].

“Please may you kindly see attached”

Makes my teeth itch. I think it’s very childish language

"I'm away from the office from X until Y."

It is a ludicrously pompous sounding email for a basic OOO. I would be cringing a bit of their behalf.

People are so steeped in mindless gobbledygook that they equate nonsense like this with “professionalism”. It’s endemic.

Absolutely. You're only typing that pasting it from ChatGPT because you want something from me. Just get on with it and tell me what you want, the purpose and the timescale and I'll let you know whether it requires me to perform a minor miracle or one akin to parting the Red Sea after first filling it with a nice Cabernet.

I used to work in copy-writing/Comms. I changed careers and want to scream every time we have to draft anything as a team at work. We have several fans of florid, waffley and confusing writing. If 5 words are good then 10 words must be better...

I hate silly waffle in emails. I particularly loathe, ‘I hope you’re well…’. Oh shut up and get to the point.

I’ve seen worse…

I don’t know why OP is being criticised for starting a thread about this. Surely you can start a thread about anything you like? And why are her critics replying if they think her thread is petty? Why don’t they just move on?

My biggest peeve with out of office replies is when they send you to someone else, who also has an out of office, who send you to someone else, whose out of office sends you back to the first person - who still isn't in!

I never usually set an OOO, I'm self employed so usually reply to clients promptly.

However I want to now just to use this.

It's tautologous but I would class it as only mildly irritating. If you want to do something constructive, you could suggest a template for OOO messages that the whole team could use - something polite but to the point.

More annoying are OOO messages that don't suggest any alternative contacts. I understand people might have to put OOO on in a hurry sometimes, but it's easy to save your standard message including your contacts and just paste it in under the dates you will be away - or some versions of Outlook will save the message you used last time so it can just be edited.