To get so wound up about an innocuous email sign off?

[Maria53]

Ok this is light hearted but curious to see if it just me.

I have a colleague who has always signed off his emails with 'Let me know if there are any issues'. I think it bugs me for the same reason 'that won't be a problem' bothers me - it is a negative take on things for no reason whatsoever.

So now 2 other people that work closely with this colleague are signing off every single email to colleagues and clients with 'Let me know if there are any issues' when they are just updating or sending something. It is driving me nuts.

AIBU?

I don't really think YABU to be annoyed by it. I used to have to exchange regular work emails with someone who used a bible scripture in her signature and it made me grind my teeth. Every email, every reply, in big swirly purple font

"From Michelle ~~ The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you. Timothy 4:22"

It made me irrationally angry. I never would say something but it made me crazy.

I always sign off with “If there’s a problem you’re on your own, loser.”

Are there any issues, OP?

@DoubleNegativePanda oddly I’ve always found that clients who have a bible quote on their sign offs are very often the most unchristian acting people ever!

@draughtycatflap

I always sign off with “If there’s a problem you’re on your own, loser.”

You work in IT support, don't you?

I see 90% YABU, ok I get the message

A few people have agreed it is negative though. Of course it is! It is also very vague and almost a bit lazy imo.

I see plenty of people use it in this thread. So I guess I'll practice deep breathing from now on when I receive such a sign off.

I write this on some of my emails but only those who I know are slow auctioning something and/or don’t ask for help and therefore create issues down the line. I don’t email it to everyone.

The word issue means something that stems from or issues from another matter. Neither positive or negative.

It replaced "problems" in corporate-speak because "problems" was considered negative - and then became negative in itself. (Silly really as people are not idiots and know whether something is negative or not despite the words).

Really all your colleagues are expressing is an openess to dialogue - which is a good thing surely.

I do this all the time. Just want to be clear that if there is something they haven't understood in the instructions that they can come back to me for clarification if needed.

I suppose as I'm mainly emailing students work to do, its a different situation. but I generally consider that I may have not worded something clearly enough and I wouldn't want them feeling like they couldn't ask me questions so they are clear what they need to do.
I have a couple of students who are very on the ball and regularly come back to me for clarifications which I pass onto the whole group.

I used to use something similar if I was signing off an email confirming actions from a meeting, so I had covered myself when I followed them and my superiors decided to try to make changes at the last minute 😂 I believe it’s called ‘managing upwards’!

I did sometimes wonder how high telling them I’d had a moment of creative inspiration which was why I’d not had the discharge pump cleaned would fly.

Compared to 'Kind regards' it's inoffensive. Though even worse for me is 'Warm regards' or, worse still, 'Warmly, [name]'.

I don't like it much. I use 'Please get in touch if you have any questions or comments' to a similar end. At least there's a chance the comments will be nice ones :-)

Not looking for trouble just asking if you need further clarification, or help.

My exH used to drive me crazy by saying to people on the phone, 'I'll let you get on now' He was controlling and abusive, and this just said to me 'you can get on with your life when I say so'.

So things rub you up the wrong way that others see as innocuous

KR and BR are the absolute pits.
Especially when they follow with their initials and no name. WTF is that? Are you so important you can’t be arsed with typing out two words?

KR
CS

I can't stand it when an ordinary request (say in a shop or restaurant) is met with "That's not a problem", or "No problem". Why are we talking about problems if I just want to order a coffee or buy a sweater? Its a habit that seems to have gone viral in recent years.
Re. the email sign-off to a client, it would be much better to phrase it positiviely. Maybe "Let me know if there is anything else I can help with".

God I often sign off with 'Hope this makes sense, if not please get back to me.' I am not alluding to the fact the receiver is ignorant, but that I send 5000 emails a day and try to be as brief as possible, consequently possibly missing out important details. Which if I have done is my fault entirely and they should tell me!

@thepeopleversuswork I've worked with some high profile people before who issue one-word responses to most of their email traffic. I wouldn't ever go that far because its unnecessarily abrupt but cutting the poncey verbiage definitely makes you sound more authoritative

Noted

My colleague used to sign off “Revert back to me if you have any questions”. Firstly it doesn’t make sense, and secondly it came across as really bossy and cold.

I just give the necessary info and sign off “Thanks, Hamble”. If anyone has any questions they’ll contact me anyway.

@Maria53, thank you for pointing that one out.

I’m the worst for ‘putting myself down’ in emails or aplogising, etc... and I’ve had to learn to be careful about it. It’s a good example on how you can be negative about your work (you are assuming there will be issues with it afterall)

I know exactly what you mean, OP, I think “questions” instead of “issues” is a lot more positive and doesn’t imply the receiver is being difficult or finding errors should they need to ask something.

It’s like my big bugbear at work - when people (generally women) apologise unnecessarily- eg during a presentation. Just don’t apologise unless something has gone catastrophically wrong. It just undermines you massively when often no one would have noticed the thing you were apologising for if you hadn’t just pointed it out!

thepeopleversuswork "I've worked with some high profile people before who issue one-word responses to most of their email traffic. I wouldn't ever go that far because its unnecessarily abrupt but cutting the poncey verbiage definitely makes you sound more authoritative."

The high profile (very successful) people I know have very short email responses because they are so busy and get something like 100 genuinely important emails a day requiring a fast response whilst also chairing meetings, signing off deals, checking with legals etc. They are literally too busy for the smalltalk and niceties (unless necessary/expected for business relationship oiling purposes rather than actual social interest). It's boom and done.

It wouldn’t other me and ‘Kind regards’ is a standard sign off in my industry.

What does irritate me is when people write ‘HamisDent’ instead of ‘Dear HamjshDent’. Really abrupt and lazy. I respond in kind, which usually sorts them out.

I am a fairly positive person. I feel adding a line about issues almost invites the issues where you are starting from a neutral position. Or plants the seed that there could be issues with the work produced.

A few people have agreed it is negative though. Of course it is!

You've put the worst possible spin on their words and latched on to the small number of others who agree rather than taking the opportunity of seeing the positive.

Actively seeking to identify potential problems in advance is not negative. Being open to challenge/discussion/concerns is not negative.

Moaning about petty aspects of other's language is negative.

I see plenty of people use it in this thread. So I guess I'll practice deep breathing from now on when I receive such a sign off.

We all have our hardships to bear. Endure and in enduring grow strong.

Now I know this is wildly unreasonable and strange but 'warm regards' sounds a bit pervy to me. I have no idea why!