Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to ask what email sign offs you use

213 replies

spaghettimaretti · 15/07/2023 14:26

Just that really.

I think regards sounds grumpy.

Best wishes slightly flimsy.

Yours sincerely is more for hard copy letters.

Saw yours truly the other day but that sounds odd and somehow ancient.

I’m in a senior professional role in quite a conventional field. Currently use kind regards but feel like an update.

What are people using just now?

OP posts:
JanesBlond · 16/07/2023 13:23

I almost always do hi and thanks. Dear is too personal and anything involving regards comes across a bit annoyed to me. If thanks doesn’t make sense with my email I would do best wishes.

EsmeSusanOgg · 16/07/2023 13:28

Many regards
Kind regards
Best wishes
Many thanks
Best
Cheers

  • it depends on tone of email, how well I know the other person, is this the first email in the exchange, how formal their email/ responses have been...
continentallentil · 16/07/2023 13:30

I don’t like kind regards for some reason Best wishes / All my best I don’t mind - but in realty mostly just my name

continentallentil · 16/07/2023 13:34

What I hate though is x

on a work email it. is. so. weird.

ArcticBells · 16/07/2023 13:45

With best wishes every time until you've bothered me too many times and then it's just Best wishes

HunterHearstHelmsley · 16/07/2023 13:46

Thepeopleversuswork · 16/07/2023 12:49

These sign-offs are a tricky kind of idiom though in general. They need to walk a difficult line between formality and friendliness that doesn't either sound hideously stuffy and pompous or fake matey.

I think a lot of them haven't really evolved much since the days of peak letter writing, which is very odd. In most areas of digital communication informality is totally natural but because email is professional it doesn't really allow for that informality.

Maybe we need an entire new language for email sign-offs. There isn't a single one I can think of which I think doesn't either sound stuffed shirt-ish or very fake.

I agree with this.

Regards and Kind Regards are the same to me. I'm sending Regards because I have to. I don't mean it.

Warm Regards is one I particularly dislike. I don't really know why. It just sounds weird, why are your regards warm?

Best, by itself. Ugh. Best. I work with someone who says this. I've never physically met her but I have formed an opinion on her, purely based on her use of Best.

Yours faithfully and sincerely both feel too formal for most emails.

I usually go with a thank you. I'll avoid any sign off if I can get away with it!

Surely2023IsTheYearForMyRainbowBaby · 16/07/2023 13:48

Kind regards

DelphiniumBlue · 16/07/2023 14:04

I really hate " kind regards", it feels somehow patronising. I only slightly prefer " best wishes ".
If it's a colleague and it's a short email, then I sometimes use just"best".
It was easier with proper letters, when " yours sincerely/faithfully " covered all work related correspondence.
Also, I know many people now consider " regards" as bordering on rude, but it was useful. I don't feel I can use it anymore.

cassiatwenty · 16/07/2023 14:06

Oh when you sign your email with Regards, they know what they did was wrong 😉

HelpMeGetThrough · 16/07/2023 14:14

If I'm asking (telling) someone/team to ensure something is done, I will sign off with "Thanks for ensuring this gets done".

Anything else, I just put my name and nothing else.

WWYDIYWMRN · 16/07/2023 14:16

Assignedtoworryyourmother · 15/07/2023 14:31

Depends what the email is. A response to a query from a colleague, I just answer with no sign off.
A response to someone I don't work with as closely or to a mass email - my name/Thanks
Not a colleague - many thanks/kind regards

Exactly this.

I have some immediate colleagues who start every email with 'Dear....' and end with Kind regards. Even if they are sitting in the next office. It's pointless.

SpringIntoChaos · 16/07/2023 14:24

woodlandtrees · 15/07/2023 15:11

I always use 'regards' . I use 'kind regards' when being passive aggressive 🤣

Oh dear Woodland! You've been inadvertently pissing off people for years 🤣 Love this 🤦‍♀️🤣🤦‍♀️ I once wrote 'Kinky regards' at the end of an email I sent to all my parents (I'm a teacher!) I had to quickly send a VERY apologetic response and explain my error to my head 😱🤦‍♀️😂

Axelotl · 16/07/2023 14:27

Best wishes
Many thanks if I feel thanks or TIA are in order
Cheers if its someone chill
My most common one is BW

Original poster
spaghettimaretti · 16/07/2023 15:56

Poshjock · 16/07/2023 12:23

My auto signature is Kind Regards which is pretty much standard in my workplace. Occasionally see Very Kind Regards if you want something. Sometimes if I'm emailing a well known colleague I'll add a funny sign off before my signature bloc like Cheers Big Ears X (all very chatty and informal)

Good Morning/afternoon is standard opening.

Yours Aye is used a lot by our Scottish contingent and in our scottish locations.

The trend just now is on replies or with familar people...

GM / GA

KR / VKR / YA

Me.

🙄

Interesting that your Scottish colleagues use Yours aye. Can you say which field/ industry you are in?

OP posts:
cassiatwenty · 16/07/2023 15:57

@SpringIntoChaos That wasn't a Freudian slip was it

WideEyedStirrer · 16/07/2023 15:58

Dear So and so,

Yours ever.

Dacadactyl · 16/07/2023 15:58

Peace out bitches

Original poster
spaghettimaretti · 16/07/2023 15:59

Babdoc · 16/07/2023 12:48

There is a quite useful sign off here in Scotland- “Yours aye”, meaning ever yours. One of my surgeons used it regularly on emails to our colleagues.
However, being autistic and to the point, I kept professional email text to the minimum required for comprehension, and didn’t waste space on sign offs. I just wrote Babdoc underneath, with no mention of regards or wishes.

Another using yours aye, this time in medical field I presume. Anybody in law here who would use it( if Scottish obv)?

A Gaelic speaking friend uses le Durachan which means Best regards but sounds better. I don’t have Gaelic though do I can’t use it.

OP posts:
cassiatwenty · 16/07/2023 15:59

Dacadactyl · 16/07/2023 15:58

Peace out bitches

GrinFlowers

Original poster
spaghettimaretti · 16/07/2023 16:00

Dacadactyl · 16/07/2023 15:58

Peace out bitches

Top fave

OP posts:
SpringIntoChaos · 16/07/2023 16:13

cassiatwenty · 16/07/2023 15:57

@SpringIntoChaos That wasn't a Freudian slip was it

😳 it was very embarrassing 🤣

Sallyh87 · 16/07/2023 16:14

Kind regards unless I am absolutely livid and then just regards.

Poshjock · 16/07/2023 17:58

spaghettimaretti · 16/07/2023 15:56

Interesting that your Scottish colleagues use Yours aye. Can you say which field/ industry you are in?

Show quote history

MOD and it's very much the uniformed staff that do this more than the CS. Goes without saying the abreviation use is also a trait of the uniformed services.

Clementineorsatsuma · 16/07/2023 18:03

JenniferAllisonPhillipaSue · 15/07/2023 14:32

Many thanks, kind regards, or just 'regards' if they've annoyed me 😁

Are you me? 🤣🤣🤣

DisforDarkChocolate · 16/07/2023 18:04

Take care - people who I want to.

Kind regards - everyone else.