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?

Depends on the organisation. My last one was more formal, less touchy-feely, and was all first name only and usually signed off with just a name. Colleagues held each other in high esteem and were professional and incisive. Current place is all 'Hi' and 'kind regards'. Colleagues are all slapdash, chaotic and faux bonhomie.

Is there a 'house' style?

At my firm it is all

Topcat

Please send...

But, in my previous job, if one started with just a name you knew you were in for a bollocking.

American colleagues often ignore the name totally - after all they know who they have written to, and you know who sent it.

I've just retired but never used 'dear...' at the beginning of internal emails except sometimes when sending an email to lots of people, in which case I would start 'dear all'.

Very occasionally I used 'Hi...'

When replying, or forwarding, I usually wouldn't put any greeting at all. I'd just launch straight in.

I don't like 'regards', 'kind regards', 'best regards' or 'best'. I ended all emails with either 'Thanks', Many thanks' or 'Best wishes'. Or sometimes a 'thanks' followed by 'best wishes'. I would not use 'best wishes' for someone I was in constant contact with.

I used to get over 100 emails a day, and probably sent about 70 or 80. It was a complete waste of money everyone's time to pad them out. I particularly used to dislike people writing 'I hope you are well'.

Why is regards passive aggressive?

Does it mean the person doesn't like you much?

Doris

Please could you send x to y by 4pm?

Many thanks/best
Alsohuman

Many moons ago, I worked for an insurance company, typing letters, as a temp.

They had a standard format, and all started with

"I refer to our letter of 15th, and note we do not appear to have received a reply"

Then some other guff

Then

"Should you require any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact the undersigned at the address at the top of this letter or on the telephone number shown below".

We were using computers, but there was no template, so it was all typed out. (I don't think we even used copy and paste etc).

Emails are so much simpler now, but then I guess there aren't as many temp jobs around for uni leavers either :)

Yo Doris,

Ping those forms over to me before close of play yeah?

Cheers :)

Curtains x

Yo Doris,

Ping those forms over to me before close of play yeah?

Cheers :)

Curtains x

topcat when I started work, we wrote along the lines of " I refer to your letter of even date hereto and enclose herewith a copy of xyz"

It was always yours sincerely. Or even dear sirs, yours faithfully.

I find it very difficult to use Hi. But I do!

BUt after this thread I realised that more often I don't use any opening terms and instead would say
"thank you for this Mavis, it's really helpful. Would you mind doing xyand z. Many thanks Anna.

I still use a double space after a full stop though.

@AnnaNimmity me too!

My younger colleagues set out letters like this:

Dear Jim
Please complete the form & return in the pre-paid envelope
Kind regards

W Sourpuss

No address of recipient, no date, no spacing, not enough room to actually sign your name, no indication that anything is enclosed... gives me the rage so I just do my own letters as I refuse to let clients think that I had anything to do with that kind of monstrosity which is barely fit to be a note on a compliments slip.

Don't get me started on their inability to master the tri-fold to show the address in a window envelope

Yep I agree it’s rude. I use to work with a person who would occasionally stand in for the team leader and I could tell she loved the ‘authority’ for a day. I was relatively new at the time and she was very unapproachable so I use to ask another member of the team for help with work and she sent an email to the team but aimed at me saying:

Guys,

Whilst team leader is away I am the first port of call for help and advice.

Fuck offfffff so glad I don’t work with her anymore.

Also not a massive fan of emails signed off with ‘regards’

Kind regards
Thanks
Many thanks
With thanks
All the best
Best wishes

I think all of the above are acceptable and friendly enough.

"Regards" on its own I wouldn't use, it sounds PA.

I have read this whole thread in fascination. I really, really don’t care how emails to me are written or set out and am amazed so many people do. It doesn’t matter! I am interested in what is in the email, not the fluffy stuff found the edges. The only thing that pisses me off is when people sign off with their qualifications in their signature.

I have my full email signature on almost all emails, even replies and forwards. I do remove it whenever I can get bend the rules to away with it and with close colleagues but otherwise it stays on for all replies. I am aware it makes me look like a pretentious arsehole but unfortunately it is company policy (inexplicably).

I still use a double space after a full stop though

Of course you do, you’re not an animal.

Ha. Yes. I still use two spaces after full stops.

I also always included my full signature on emails, including replies and forwards. I hated it when colleagues didn't even include a phone number. Sometimes I'd get an email and the best way to deal with it was a quick phone call. It always annoyed me that I had to waste time looking it up.

Just to be clear about signatures, I absolutely find them useful on the first reply and forwards. I meant more that our policy is meant to be that they are on every email we send. Even to people who know exactly who you are and even in long conversations trails when your signature is already there multiple times. That I hate.

Completely agree... it's normally the directors that do it. It's rude. I always think that they are up themselves. Doesn't take much to put "hi".

I much prefer succinct.

Ragged, do you have the March data? Cheers -Colleague

We are being pushed to move to MS Teams which encourages the bare bones style. I'd say bare bones is prevalent in the main industry I work in.

I find Hello/Dear/Good Morning fairly ridiculous frippery that wastes everyone's time. I like but don't need sign off with Thanks/KR/Cheers, though, if asking someone else to get stuff done.

Jesus Christ - I don’t even read the top line - I have no time and just read the middle bit of the email. Sometimes i start the email with a hi (name). There are far ruder ways to start an email OP. Believe me.

I'm not a native English speaker and I have always found it baffling that dear is considered formal. The intellectual part of me does understand that it's a cultural norm. But dear is also a term of endearment within family. I've always found it intimate since I'd use the translation to only refer a person that o really care about. I just cannot bring myself to use it when emailing a CEO.

I wonder if it varies by industry or also generation?

I started using e-mail in the 90s in the workplace and it was straight to the point with the message (either no salutation or name only - and certainly none of this 'Kind Regards' bollocks). But then it was an additional form of communication in addition to letters and memos, each of which had their own structure, so we could cope with a variety of styles and not mistake brevity for brusqueness..

But as e-mail became more widespread people began to structure it more like a letter ('Dear so-and-so' 'With kind regards'), possibly also because it spread into mainstream life and not just the workplace. Meanwhile text messages got shorter and created abbreviations - completely the opposite direction to e-mails.

And where did Kind Regards originate from anyway? We never used it at the end of letters (only Yours Faithfully or Sincerely). I hate Kind Regards - it's so insincere. I've learned to adopt 'Regards' in my current workplace though, but I'm bloody well not putting Kind in front of it.

And I also put two spaces after a full stop.

I'm guilty of this. Sometimes I notice and change it. My excuse reason is I get very focused on completing whatever I need to do and my brain chucks out the pleasantries sometimes under pressure.

FWIW I'm a very informal, silly, non-threatening person to work with. I just get more direct when I'm in the zone and working against the clock.

I'd prefer a "Doris..." to anything signed off with "regards" any day, mind you...