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.

In a formal letter or email, I would use “Yours sincerely” if I knew the recipient’s name and “Yours faithfully” if I didn’t.

We should all just unilaterally decide to STOP.

(Bernard Woolley voice)
Minister, if we all do it, then it's not unilateral.

I'm with @Thepeopleversuswork

"Kind regards" gets on my nerves. What the hell does "kind" mean in that phrase?

I find warm wishes a bit ick, something about the warm is strangely intrusive. I'm thinking about a simple 'Farewell' in Latin, so just 'Vale.' That officially says goodbye and conveys good wishes that the recipient fares well, plus the Latin conveys formality. Possibly overthinking this!

I really don't like "kind regards", I feel it sounds fake and smarmy. Because what other regards are there? Unkind ones?
I put people who use it in the same category as those who keep referring to "myself", as in " please reply to myself by Tuesday". Slightly officious, and not authentic. Or, to be fair, following policy.
"Best wishes" is better, but I prefer "Regards". I used to like "Yours" but thats not really an email thing these days.
For colleagues, I often use "Best" for the second email in a chain, and for the 3rd, I might just put my initial, and forgo all the small talk!

Just sent a covering letter for a job and signed off 'yours sincerely and was considering 'kind regards'. Bugger. Oh well its done now🙃

I remember MN signing off a stiffish message to someone who'd caused no end of trouble. I can't remember the details, just the 'yup we've had enough now, fuckity bye' tone. 'Go well' was their chosen sign off which was beautifully judged.

Maybe an alternative could get 'laters'!🤣😂

Lol I had no idea I was supposed to hate the person I wrote regards to. Oops I thought it was professional

I really miss corporate email subtext! Work for a tech company now where people just tell each other to fuck off 😂

There's nothing better than sitting crafting a masterpiece of subtext where you could not be picked up on a single word of your email as it is entirely polite and professional, but the entire tone reads as hugely pissed off. Agree with PP, "sorry if I missed it" is a prime example, as is "per the below."

I know a guy who signs off "kindest regards" and that somehow seems even worse than "kind regards" in terms of backhandedness!

I was "many thanks" to clients and "thanks very much" to internal people I liked.

@headcheffer make yourself a macro so you only have to put in ‘KR’ and it types it all for you.

Everyone uses kind regards

I always reply same day either with a holding email or a reply as well. Internally if it's pushy and bordering rude/ assuming seniority then I'll mention I'll check with manager to change my priorities. They back off instantly.

If its external I'll do my best to help or say when I'll respond after review.

For me, I try not to take it personally, and being uber polite means it keeps emotion on emails down. I work with a lot of HNW and they are sometimes very entitled.

I do feel as of if I'm lizzie Bennett writing a letter sometimes:)

Oh yes, corporate subtext is awesome.

Favourite is ' I might be missing something - surely doing xxx will result in xxx'

loosely translated as ' what the fuck are you doing/ suggesting as it's clearly not going to work ' :)

"I may be missing something" = "I'm definitely not missing anything, including the fact that you (the recipient) are a raging moron." 😂

Last week it was please don't use Teams for messages of longer than a sentence

That’s so irritating. I am interested in thoughts on Teams etiquette as well now. I hate it when someone messages good morning then waits for a response before saying what they want. If someone does this I generally respond with ‘how can I help’ and ignore the good morning, hope you are well crap.

Yeah, I don't bother with that either. Example Hi x, what is xxx. No rush. Thx

If anyone did the good morning stuff - it depends who it is though :)

I'm not talking about senior colleagues, I'm referring to our customers. When a customer persistently refuses to pay and you have exhausted all other alternatives with their accounts department, it is sometimes fruitful to approach, for instance, one of the senior people on the manufacturing side, to tell them why we aren't delivering the goods they are waiting for. They can then put a rocket under the chair of the person whose responsibility it is to authorise payments.

@blacksax ooohhhhh. You should definitely start those emails with "OI!" 😁 * *

Or double up on your signature field. The 'box' as an image, your expected to be typed out manually bit as text.

@NeverDropYourMooncup jusr think of how all the seconds we’ve saved @headcheffer She’ll be able to retire a year earlier than expected 😁

I use:
Regards - hate them.
Warm Regards - formal
Thanks and best wishes - warm
Cheers - friendly
In Sisterhood - loving truth or pass ag depending on how you receive it.

I like to improve efficiency of communication!

I take the view that when I'm dealing with hundreds of different things and constant interruptions, getting straight to the point and making it understandable at a glance makes it far more likely to register with me. And I'm less likely to be quietly seething at the sender, wishing I could send a Reply All saying

GET TO THE POINT

And I would completely outlaw the use of Reply All to send 'Thank you', 'No, it's no trouble', 'You're very kind, it's the Team that matters', 'Thank you' and all that. I DON'T CARE.

'I would be concerned that x could potentially be interpreted as y by (insert appropriate oversight organisation)'

'We would need to be clear that x doesn't result in y (insert the absolute shitstorm this stupid instruction will inevitably cause, complete with the appropriate legislation direct from source for when the Idiot making this suggestion tries to respond with 'we need to embody a growth mindset' - meaning 'I don't have a fucking clue but I'm going to blame you when it goes tits up for not thinking magically enough instead of being held responsible for making a shit decision in the first place'). - also subtext for 'have you ever actually learned to do this job, or did you get parachuted into position from space and your mission on Earth is to try and imitate a functioning human?'