using 'Hi' instead of 'Dear' in work emails...

[Crosbybeach]

...when you don't know the person you are emailing/responding to. Also if they have used 'Dear your name' to respond with Hi, when you don't know them just seems too casual.

I don't have a problem with people emailing me with 'Hi Crosby' when I don't know them. But if I don't know someone and it's a formal email, I'll always use 'dear'.

Am I hopelessly out of touch? (mid 40s...)

I'm 46 and I prefer 'Hi' to Dear.

Dear always makes me feel like I'm writing to my granny.

I tend towards Hi to as Dear seems a bit too formal.

For me email is a little less formal and dear feels very old-fashioned in that context.

I'd usually use 'dear', but have used "Hello X," as an alternative. Hi sounds too informal to me.

I also prefer hi. Dear sounds a bit formal and old-fashion to me.

It depends entirely on your sector.

'hi' would be a major faux pas where I worked.

Dear seems very formal. If I don't know the person I tend to send the salutation 'good morning/afternoon...'

I get in a quandary over this once in a while too. I sometimes go with good morning/afternoon if I'm not sure.

My own preference is to treat emails more like convestations than letters.

"Hi firstname" seems to be the generally accepted greeting at my current & previous workplaces. I tend to use Hi for people within the organisation (even if I don't know them) and Dear for formal emails to external people I don't know, or to a generic mailbox e.g. "Dear IT Helpdesk" when any one of a number of people might read / respond.

It depends on your work environment and how people normally address you.

If everyone uses Hi, I'd go with it and just leave Dear to those higher up and those not within the organization.
Otherwise, keep to dear. I think it's always better to be polite.

If you use Dear, and think Hi is too informal, do you sign off with Yours sincerely, or something less formal?

We were taught that you should treat work email exactly as you would a letter so Dear... Yours F/S at the end.

I always start with 'Hi' and end with 'kind regards' irrespective of who I'm mailing

I always write an email like I would a letter, so dear.. Yours sincerely/faithfully. I got into this habit at uni when one of the tutors told us we had to write all email to staff like this if we were to expect a reply.

Internet etiquette is less formal.

If I got an internal work email saying Dear regardless of whether I knew the person or not, I would think it fuddy duddy.

Likewise most external emails.

The only exception being if you were writing a formal letter by email (eg letter of complaint, letter to MP). These occasions are rare and the exception to the rule imho.

This is the kind of problem that ties me in knots.

I think "Dear x" is too formal for email. I never use "Hi" in real life so struggle to write it. I get round it by trying to incorporate the person's name into my first sentence - "Thank you for the response, X" or similar. Quite often I just start with the person's first name and no salutation.

I do wish there was a Debrett's guide for email....

I'm a similar age and also find this hard. I recently had to email someone I had never met about a job, and Dear Title Lastname seemed too formal but Hi Firstname seemed inappropriate too. I settled on dear but it didn't feel right.

I'm in my late twenties and often use Hi on an email to colleagues if I know them well. If I was emailing someone senior to me, someone I didn't know well, or someone who I didn't know at all, I'd use Hello / Morning / Afternoon etc. I think Dear is just a bit too old fashioned in emails!

Email can be formal or informal. It's mostly faster.

First names only feel too blunt.

Having said that, after two or more emails, I usually don't bother with greetings.

Always 'Hi' even if I don't know the person. If I receive an email saying 'Dear Porker' I always think there's a bollocking coming up!

I use hi mostly. If I'm responding to a message I tend to copy the sender's greeting. If it's someone very senior I'll just go for name.

E-mails to my manager have neither greetings nor endings.

I don't generally worry about these things.

We had about 10mins on this is a training session I was on (fairly formal sector).

Rule of thumb for me - dear if external, dear/hello if internal and I don't know them (or v senior) and hi if I know them well. I normal only 'Hi' if the other person has started it!

Depends a bit on content as well. My big boss might get a 'hi' email if I was asking for a day off but not if I was reporting a serious issue.

Meant to say - no consensus!

Generally 'Hi', if it's to colleagues even if you don't know them.

But 'Dear' if you were writing to a customer or someone very senior.

An email can be used in place of both phone calls and letters. If it's replacing a phone call or memo then generally 'Hi' is sufficient. It it's replacing a letter, then I think 'Dear' is better.