Colleague's fluffy language!

[Mk9821]

Just received an out of office reply to an email sent to my colleague.
"currently at this present time I'm not at work abd not going to be back in the office till xxx".
She never gets straight to the point, why to some people use overly fluffy and round the houses ways of saying something that can be summarised in a few words?

There is absoltely nothing wrong with what she has said @Mk9821

Some people word things differently to others. Doesn't make them wrong, and you right, and it doesn't make you better than them!

I briefly had a job where I was expected to write emails on my employer's behalf and do it in a 'friendly' tone, which included lots of 'hope you're well' and similar chatty nonsense on and on. It was too much like hard work, painful even. I left because of it. Everything else was fine and I liked my boss but I genuinely hated having to write such waffle so often and it didn't feel professional. My boss was great at the 'schmoozing' side of things however both by email and in person and I couldn't stand it. Just tell the client what they need to know, politely, is my working theory and I also prefer to be on the receiving end of the same.

I know people don't like to hear it and I know it's frowned upon but for some of us words matter and yes, we do judge people getting it wrong. You may not see this particular message as 'wrong' but it's tautological and therefore sounds unprofessional, uneducated, daft.

In the same way that I have no doubt some of the school gate mothers judge me for my often unbrushed hair and generally unpolished appearance, some of us judge other people based upon different aspects of their presentation. When I see something written badly/incorrectly/inelegantly I feel slightly icky knowing I'm judging that person badly - but to be fair to myself (see what I did there? 😁) I do try to keep an open mind and if that person is otherwise great then obviously I look beyond it. Of course if that person is a twat then I'm delighted to have found another character flaw to stack against them and will happily use it as a weapon where necessary...

You may not approve of academic snobbery but please don't pretend you don't judge other people. Maybe it's not based upon their writing skill but it might be their appearance, their messy house, unfashionable clothes, bad driving skills, their badly behaved kids, their weight or whatever. We all judge other people based upon our own standards and for some of us that's writing skill.

It matters if she communicates with clients this way.
As a customer, I'd start to lose faith in someone who sent out emails like this. It's simply not professional writing.

"currently at this present time" is a tautology. And neither is needed. You only need "I'm not at work and not going to be back in the office till xxx". Although I'd prefer "I am out of the office and return on xxx".

I really don't like "kindly". It sounds so sarcastic. That's so often how a British person would use it. "Kindly get your mitts off my beer."
A lot of Indian English speakers use it as a polite word so I have to mentally adjust because they clearly don't mean it like that!

I love it when the ooo directs you to another person that’s also ooo !

As a couple of other people have said 'Currently' and 'at this present time' is mildly annoying as they mean the same thing. But I prefer the more flowery ooo replies, I find the basic ones a bit rude and aggressive (that's a bit of an exaggeration) I like details or a nice sentence or even a little joke to be honest.

No, she's not that smart even when talking normally. 🤣

Myself again.
Apologies for going slightly off piste, but what about sign off etiquette?
'Kind regards' just sounds too generic and boring. 'KR' like the sender is in a rush and can't be bothered responding, and 'regards' sounds like you've really upset the sender.

I realise it has a lot to do with the sender/received relationship, but just wondered what others' views are on this.

Best,
DuchessofStaffordshire

Wishing you hugs and a boob flash? 😅

I hate ‘kind regards’, so mimsy.

We just put regards.

Oh my God. Do people really use 'KR' to sign off? I'm glad I've never had to see such an abomination.

I have a completely useless senior colleague who talks this bilge. I watch the faces of colleagues who sit in the team meeting just utterly baffled by what she’s going on about. She chats absolute shit wrapped up in cringey corporate-speak. I’m just sitting there wondering how these idiots get promoted to senior positions.

There is an Australian duo who do a show about ridiculous corporate speak (the title is W--nomics) and it is very true about what they say.

I had to explain to my Malaysian colleague that “thanks a bunch” would not be interpreted in the UK as a deeply sincere expression of thanks…