Boring thing resulted in a hot debate - "yours sincerely, for Acme Limited"

[HateSpewingTurnip]

This sparked a heated debate in my office a couple of weeks ago and some of us are still stewing on it 😂

When writing a letter to whoever, employee, contractor, business etc. I, and several others who had done formal business/secretary courses were "trained" to use:

Yours sincerely
For (or "on behalf of" - whichever same thing) Acme Limited (so company name)

Regina Phalange
Job title

To sign off a letter.

We all agreed it was because we were advised that you're making it clear you are writing it for the business, not from you personally, and you are an appropriately designated/authorised person to write such a letter, depending on the contents.

Also agreed some companies might not do this, it's probably not a huge deal if they don't, but equally it is an accepted sign off.

Others disagree, think its weird and unnecessary, and have never seen this before (or noticed maybe?)

So mumsnet over to you - is this a thing? Was a thing, not anymore? Or never a thing, wtf are you on about?

I don't know about in the past but if you're writing a letter, surely the letterhead and "from" address at the top is how people know you're writing from a company. The only thing I've ever seen apart from someone signing their own name is if a secretary signs their name then does a PP for someone higher up. It's obvious you're representing the company because of the letterhead and, usually, the contents of the letter so it seems redundant to me to add anything.

I'd think it was a bit OTT if I got a letter saying "for ACME Limited" on the sign off as you describe, it sounds like something from sales patter in 1950s America.

I am starting a new business communication course soon though so I am willing to stand corrected if it's the new thing!

It's definitely not a new thing I've (and the others) seen letters with this, and done it ourselves, for many years.

Yes the letterhead shows it from a company, it was more that the comms is written for the company and they approve the contents being written because you're "authorised" to write in that way if that makes sense?

Can you ask your course leader (if they look middle aged)? They might have come across it if so 🤞🤣 report back, we can wait as long as it takes to settle this debate 😂

Yes I'll ask them and report back. 😁 Course starts in early Feb.

Yes it was very much a thing OP. Not so much now though. I was trained to do this at secretarial school in the 70's but it was still being used in the 90's.

It was the way ALL commercial correspondence was done back in the day (1970s) when I first went out to work.

As you say the idea was to make it clear it was the company and not the individual who was responsible for the contents of the letter.

Then things became a bit more informal and, so long as it was on company letterhead, it was accepted that it was the company writing to whoever.

Oh thank you we're all not going mad then or had a weird collective false memory! 😄

It would feel so weird to stop doing it now I've done it for over 20 years 😬