'Best'

[inwood]

As an email sign off this seems to have become more and more popular and I absolutely cannot stand it.

This is coming from colleagues I know well,

Inwood

blah blah blah

Best

D

How do you sign off emails?

How I sign off emails depends on the situation and who the recipient is, but I'd never use "best".

Best what, FFS?

Short for best wishes, that's all.

Xref the recent thread on how EVERY SINGLE SIGNOFF is passive aggressive or snarky in some way. What's a person to do?

I usually go with "Thanks - Spoons" if it's appropriate, or "Regards" for formal.

Then why not write best wishes? Best makes no sense.

That was to scapa

I use the following

Thank you
Thank you and have a good week/weekend
Best wishes
Best

No no no to Best.

I I’m sticking with “Many thanks” at the moment.

Apparently Regards (without the ‘Kind’) is considered the most passive aggressive sign off currently.

I don’t like the Many Thanks one

Goes to show you can’t please everyone over email sign offs

I can actually remember the first time I got an email with just “Best” as a sign-off. It was in 1998 (I remember because of where I was working), and it was from an old uni mate who was an English Lit lecturer somewhere quite impressive (American - Ivy League, I think).

I don’t think it’s too bad really, perhaps because of that context. I was fond of him and email was still a relatively new part of our lives, so I interpreted it as a sign of modern brevity and efficiency, which was in line with how we were all being encouraged to communicate in those days.

But I can see why it might irritate, depending on your personal taste. I do sometimes use it myself.

@7Worfs I’ll change to “Now sod off and get on with it” or something maybe!?

Puppy well you could, as that’s how I read it anyway

I can't say it bothers me. It's just shorthand for 'best wishes'. I have a client who signs off 'all best' 🤷🏻‍♀️ As long as it's not the dreaded 'kind regards'!

It’s just brief. Wouldn’t use it on anyone external / unfamiliar / particularly high up, but don’t see the problem otherwise. Would rather have that any day than ‘Regards’...!

How about “Take care”?

Maybe a bit threatening?

You are pulling my leg now!

Where I worked it was used as shorthand between colleagues ie very informal. Never saw it used to external clients.

Someone once signed off a work email with "KR" (kind regards) and I recoiled. Awful!

My old boss used to sign off with 'BWs'.

As long as it's not the dreaded 'kind regards'!

What would you use instead?

Depends how much I hated the person I was emailing

Bw or Kr are the standard sign offs where I work

Many thanks

I had someone with the KR sign off recently and thought it was annoying, just write the bloody words.

My signature is just pre set to:
Kind Regards,
Anti Supermum

Who has the time or inclination to give this kind of thing much thought? Same goes where I rarely pay attention to how other people sign off their emails either. I read the point of the email and I crack on with the task in hand.