Why is ‘Kind regards’ a bad sign off

[SuperiorM]

So, I’ve just heard that ‘Kind Regards’ is considered passive aggressive. Maybe I’m just old and out of touch but it sounds more like a more friendly’Best wishes’ to me. I suppose I’m going to have to stop using it.

I think kind regards is normal. 'Regards' is passive aggressive.

Regards is passive aggressive Kind Regards is fine and how we are told to sign off emails to clients at work.

I use ‘kind regards’ if I like the person. ‘Regards’ if I don’t.

It’s better than ‘KRs’!

Kind Regards is normal. I drop the kind when I’m pissed off with the recipient.

Kind regards is totally standard in professional services firms.

Another thread where people dont know what passive aggressive actually means

You know what I hate?

”I trust this email finds you well”

I use kind regards on pretty much every email
I use regards when I am rapidly losing my temper at the ongoing email chain

I've been using email for nearly a quarter of a century. There was no agreed etiquette when I started, as far as I knew, anyway, so for years and years I used 'Regards' without a clue that others regarded this as cold and passive aggressive! Ah well. I switched over to using 'Kind regards' or 'Best wishes' or in cases where I was dashing off a quick message to someone I knew quite well 'BW'. If anyone's ever been offended they've never said!

There's nothing wrong with kind regards, it covers most situations.

I'm not taken with that either. Worst of the lot, though, is 'gentle reminder', which makes me want to throw something at the screen.

Kind regards is fine.

"Regards" is what I send to the Ex husband ...

My pet hate too! I like an opener but hate that. I use it when I hope my email hasn't found them well.

Worst of the lot, though, is 'gentle reminder', which makes me want to throw something at the screen.

So much this! (And yet, I sometimes have to use it myself despite seeking alternatives!)

Regards for someone you hate, kind regards for someone you don't know (or know but don't know them well), best regards for people you know and like.
And no addressing emails to just 'Name' without a Hi or Hello!

100% this.

For me, I use 'all the best' most of the time, and 'best wishes' when I'm slightly unhappy.

I agree re Kind Regards. It's all workplace-dependent tho.

I really really hate 'Best' on its own.

I'd love to be able to dispense with salutations but in my workplace leaving them off, even in email chains / replies, is the equivalent of slapping someone across the face 😂

'Kind regards' is normal. I use it for business purposes. 'Best,' is for when I'm annoyed or don't like someone.

My mother in law ends all her correspondence to her own son such as emails and birthday cards with “regards” which cracks me up. Steady on there don’t show too much affection to your sons!

I use “Yours sincerely” when I am being passive aggressive. Regards is me being friendly. Nobody ever gets to Kind Regards! Love for me is the next stage!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with kind regards.

Professionally I use “many thanks” or just “thanks” if I really hate the person.

In my workplace, 'best' is used by the Younger Folk or those trying to be edgy.

It's funny, the differences in workplace culture.

Read the thread! Of course there isn't, in terms of the actual words.

However, organisations have their own peculiarities and what's the norm in one, will be subtly different in another.