Email etiquette at work

[damekindness]

When emailing at work to the in-house team I tend to start with Hello {first name} because it sounds open and friendly .

Rarely a Dear {first name} if it's something formal like performance management type things or I'm being passive aggressive

To external people its a Dear until I get to know them and then it seems too formal

The one thing that does set my teeth on edge is when people begin their emails with just the persons first name as in...

Doris,

Further to our meeting this morning,,,

AIBU to think that appears brusque or rude?

I have Kind regards as part of my email signature so I never have to think about how to sign off. I also appreciate an 'I hope you are well' - it's polite if we haven't spoken in a while. I tend to write how I'd speak without being overly waffly, if that makes sense.

I don't tend to like the 'Doris' approach but it's sometimes just people's style. My boss is an absolutely lovely man but he's very direct and to the point over email. At first I thought he was annoyed at me but he's just a busy person and doesn't faff around!

I could not get worked up about this.
Sometimes I don't even bother with any greeting at all! Especially if it's just a quick note to someone I email all the time....

Hate emailing back and forth and having to be all ‘hi Jane’ every time.

I hate this, the ultimate way to get my back up is to email me starting “Matilda...”and the continuing with the email. I feel like it’s speaking to me like I’m an idiot and like I’m being ticked off before we’ve even started. I made the mistake of telling our CEO how much it gets my back up and starts every email to me with “Matilda...” just to wind me up. Today’s last email was “Matilda... have a nice weekend”

I work with a lot of francophones and they often start emails to multiple respondents with "Dears". Doesn't make any sense in English but it's cute!

There’s a kind of man (always a man, inevitably vair posho) who doesn’t say “Hi Tiger” but “Tiger, hi”. That is flipping annoying. Also see a new one on me today - instead of “ I’ll go and ask them”, he said “thanks, I’ll moot”.

"Kind Regards" is ghastly and sets my teeth on edge

I think the same. I hate it! It sounds beyond patronising.

I find kind regards horrible, much prefer regards. But I know others disagree so mostly I use thanks these days.

I only use regards for external emails, internal ones I just says thanks.

Unless they are unusually annoying and incompetent, then I say thanks for your help.

I say Thanks for in house emails as that's the company style. External it's Regards. Kind regards is fucking awful.

Incidentally, does anyone remember when email used to be written e-mail? I mean, commonly? I remember dropping the hyphen when I noticed some other people did and I decided I cba with it any more, around about 2001, and a stuffy manager remarking on it saying "welllll, I suppose there is some debate on the matter". Well fuck you Charles, as time has proved me right.

thanks not thanks for

I don’t like hello or hi or whatever. It sounds unprofessional.

External emails I always start Dear whoever, internal ones just Name,

I sign off with Regards or Yours Sincerely.

@Redhanger but surely you don't say 'hi' etc. After the first initial email? Once that's out of the way you're just having a conversation as you would in person

The rudest thing is ignoring an email when you are asked something for which a simple answer can be provided.

To the poster who asked whether ‘sent from my iPhone’ etc is meant to demonstrate something, it really isn’t. Cynically there is probably some advertising element but actually if something is sent from a phone or similar devise then it may a) contain typos as on the move, b) not carry my full signature with contact details etc.

the 'Doris' approach in my company is only done by the insecure ( usually male) senior-ish people. The Chairman of the fecking board of our billion £ company manages to put a "Hi' in her emails, as do most of the VPs etc.
The prick-ish sales directors are all "doris, get me those figures' presumably because they think it makes them sound business like or tough. The rest of us use language that makes us sound like humans, not some sales manual from the 1980s, and oddly enough all my clients, old and new, small and big respond better to being spoken to like a person rather than a revenue stream.

I use good morning/ afternoon if starting a conversation. Then hello Jane or Hi Jane if time has lapsed between emails. Kind regards is fine in any situation imo. Best is short for All the best... Best wishes sounds more personal to me and best regards is not a thing.

I always say Hi or Hello and always put thank you at the end

I would only send a smiley face to someone I knew really well. Usually if they have done me a nice favour or helped me. Never to anyone else

Email is considered an informal form of communication so should never begin with 'dear'.

What a bizarre thing to believe. Would be genuinely interested to hear where you got this idea from!

Hi Doris or Dear Doris.
Maybe Dear Mrs Doris Smith if emailing someone in eg India.

Regards, Blue

In my last job (banking) everyone started emails with ‘Hi Mother’.

I found it massively weird and rude at first when I joined a public sector department and everyone just put:

Mother,
(Body Of email)
Mike

I am used to it now and I know that those colleagues aren’t rude, it’s just the way they do things but I still can’t bring myself to do it so it’s still always ‘Hi X or Good morning/afternoon X’ from me.

I loathe people doing this to me. It feels like posturing, because it is. If they annoy me enough they get the same back and normally they don’t like it up ‘em.

I always put "Hi" to anyone in house of people i know personally

Anyone else its Dear, or Good morning/afternoon

Not just 'first name' dont know but just seems a little rude.

I sign off every email with either thanks followed by my name or kind regards etc

For all you pp who say they start with hi/hello/dear etc (and similar end signoffs), what do you do if the email ends up in a chain? (Which are annoying in their own right, but a separate thread!)

Do you add the greeting and sign off to every single exchange in the chain?

I find it tiresome, and akin to those people who insist on having their full auto-signature on every single email reply.

BuzzshitbagBobbly No, one Hi is enough, and that's pretty standard at my workplace.

If I ask someone to do something in one of the subsequent emails I always say thanks, whether in the body of the email or at the very end.