Irrationally enraged by colleague's email signature, or is it inappropriate?

[Peakhim]

I have a newish colleague who has his email set up to give his full name, degree achieved (masters) followed by his full job title. This comes up in all internal emails and his job rarely involves sending external ones.

I think it's wanky and actually rude. No one else does it and many have more qualifications than him. People even comment on it and poke fun. I hoped he would notice by now that it's not done and take it down. It doesn't help that it comes up in really big letters after his normal sign off.

I'm his line manager and wonder whether to tell him to take it off but things aren't going well with him overall so I don't want it to look petty or like bullying.

But fuck, who does that??

I should have known this thread would go this way. I've seen it before when someone posts in some kind of management role - they always get their arse handed to them and told they are obviously the worst manager ever known.

People clearly project and make massive assumptions such as that the way a poster writes on here directly correlates with how they speak to staff at work, and they're always jealous/ threatened by the other person, despite stating from the beginning that the person is not doing well.

Fwiw, I do have a degree but I don't have a masters. Would have loved to do one and had a place but no funding,. So yes, maybe I am a bit jealous in that respect but he's hardly the only person in my life with one, both personally and professionally, and I seem to keep my rampant jealousy under control with all the others. I do think his signature annoys me due to other elements of his practice that are below par.

I'm certainly not professionally threatened by him and the word that most often springs to mind when I think of him is glib, and I actually think his email signature is quite a good example of that quality as it reflects a lack of thought about how he may be coming across to his peers.

And no, it's not a small family business

Not read the thread but I'd leave him to it. You've already said, it's not going externally and colleagues will just laugh at it.

I used to work with soneone who put Mrs at the beginning of her email and every single one of her qualifications after her name. People thought it was stupid but it's hardly a big deal.

You've already said there are concerns with him so concentrate on getting those sorted first.

I know somebody who does this, with a completely unrelated qualification to their role. It speaks absolute volumes about them, which is quite a useful warning sign to the uninitiated, I think.

It might be an opportune time to put in a standard email signature accross the business but unless that is necessary then that will be a lot of effort and policing.

I know some people are saying it automatically means he lacks emotional intelligence or he's arrogant or whatever but maybe it was expected in his previous job or he's just proud of it. He's not exactly flouting any rules.

If you are his manager and the signature is not in keeping with company culture, it is your job to have him correct it. Send him some example signatures that do follow company culture.

In fact I'm sure he did a masters because his family were able to pay and it saved him having to work for a bit longer

and

Fwiw, I do have a degree but I don't have a masters. Would have loved to do one and had a place but no funding

Good for you for acknowledging your envy

Tinkobel said: If you were a little mischievous (I am!) then you could have a lot of fun with this......treat your new colleague as the 'guru' and fountain of knowledge on anything whatsoever that is very loosely related to the plugged qualification. Ask him questions publically and refer people to him! 😁😂.

This worries me. Some people with autistic traits would list their qualifications to aid clarity and communication, and why not?

The idea that colleagues might be encouraged to come to them with queries on their stated specialism as a form of ridicule and taunting is a horrifying idea.

My clever, thoughtful, hard working and conscientious son would fall into this category. He could easily be blindly persuaded by colleagues to waste hours of his valuable time explaining to the 'asker' the ups, downs , inside outs and in betweens of the conundrum presented to him. He would be genuinely trying help by explaining the concept they were having trouble understanding.

Thank goodness where he works he is treated with dignity and respect.

Fgs....I was not talking about some kind of campaign of bullying or ridicule, why do people have to assume the worst. I was talking about a bit of ribbing no more. But given the guy has simply put his masters M after his name, I wouldn't bother. When the originally posted I thought we were talking about a list of quals as long as your arm!

Good for him for acquiring the Masters, it's probably taken a lot of hard work and dedication to gain that. @starbrightnight - I don't know what to say other than I happy that your son is happy!

@Peakhim if this employee is below par and not performing, but 'riding' on his qualification, then the best way to handle this is not to seethe resentfully at his autosignature, but give him fair chance to improve, by being specific on aspects for improvement and offer him support to up his game. If he has a MSc/MA he isn't unintelligent and could well have great potential, but clearly, he needs guidance currently, if he's being immature or isn't focussing on delivery, meeting deadlines or up to quality expectations.

That would be far more healthy all round that being stressed and wound up by his MSc (esp if it feels a bit goady).

If he doesn't respond well to guidance offered then he should be treated in exactly the same way as any other under-performing employee, through Performance Management, fairly - not driven by your wish to wipe the smile off his face because he has a Post-Grad.

I was not talking about some kind of campaign of bullying or ridicule, why do people have to assume the worst.

But one person's playful banter is another ones bullying.

The OP is ci corned a converstation about his signiture could make her look like a bully. So I am guessing other stuff has gone off, that OP hasnt come out of looking good.

Playful banter with a new employee, that probably already knows you dont like them, isnt likely to end well.

My company has a global standardised signature. It has my job title on it. I email the DCs schools on this account. I could be getting judged...who knew?

Where I work, full name, job title and highest education qualification is standard in your email signature so doesn't seem odd to me at all.

If your email signatures aren't automatic though I can see how it would look a bit try hard - I don't think I'd get too invested in it though.

I work in education and larf when emailed by certain parents from their workplace. Like I am so intimidated by your life coaching job. Or nutritionist clinic. Or journalist for a national newspaper

What the fuck? DH uses his work email for pretty much everything, because it’s easier than checking multiple email accounts! He has a Hotmail account set up when he was at school that mainly gets junk mail, everything else goes to his work email. Luckily I don’t think DD’s teacher is insecure enough to think he’s using that email to be intimidating. I think it says a lot about you that you assume that’s their reason for doing it, to be honest.

I have 5 jobs actually...
One day I was at Job1 planning to be at Job2 for afternoon.
I checked emails for Job2 using workscreen for Job1, just to verify timing of going out for drinks later that week.

Some Fecker grassed me up to my line manager. Made out I was doing actual work for Job2. I'm still about it. Anyway, I now try to avoid having anything that remotely looks not-Job1 work on my screen; although I still email personal todo lists to my personal account. & on a Friday afternoon I might just about send a personal email to DH (like "Do I still need to buy milk on way home?" but that's it). Even using work screen to check the weather is probably something I'd think twice about.

People check their personal phones constantly at work, mind!! I have a strict "I don't care if you're playing Tetris" attitude towards what might be on other people's screens.

If you're such a great manager why haven't you told him that he should change the email signature?

Yabu, he has a legal right to use his title.

You may dislike it, however even if it was against the culture of your company, you would have no legal stance.

It’s like telling a doctor not to be called doctor just because you personally don’t like it.

It's not an issue whether he has a "legal right", HaudYerWheesht. After all, he has a legal right to call himself Bugs Bunny if he wants to. The question is whether it makes him look an idiot, which it does.

DH emails me with "kind regards" and his full standard autosignature. I take the piss every time.

I have an autosignature also, I just delete it for informal or personal emails.

I think there's a bit of insecurity going on for some people. For what it's worth I certainly don't list my qualifications in emails and don't use my title normally (although don't see anything wrong with people who do - it's fairly standard in lots of careers even where a PhD isn't formally required) BUT I really don't think most people who do are trying to intimidate anyone with their qualifications or job title.

Fwiw, I do have a degree but I don't have a masters. Would have loved to do one and had a place but no funding

So you didn't qualify for the peanuts rate student loan/graduate tax?

You sound wanky and rude to me.If there is a house style for signatures tell him. That's your job. If there is something going on in your head about his qualifications, that's your problem right there.

Leave it x

YABU

Someone I used to work with was far less qualified than almost everyone else and she used to have about 25 letters after her name that nobody understood. I always thought it was a self-confidence thing - her feeling she had to build herself up to fit in.

The irony was that despite her lack of qualifications she was great at her job and came across perfectly confident so I always thought it a bit odd.