Employees emails and messages

[friendlytotheend]

Some advice on this situation please? I run a team of staff in a professional environment, it’s my company so I’m the employer and managing director. One employee has recently had some performance issues which we’ve had to be quite firm about (repeatedly not following important procedures). Since then, the communications I receive from her have no hello, hi, dear, no name and will often be along the lines of ‘can I have’ or ‘here’s the thing you asked for’ Etc and quite honestly, it’s starting to grate. Just a ‘hi’ or ‘thanks’ at the end of an email would be a bit more pleasant, it doesn’t take much.

As far as I am concerned, the performance issues were dealt with (we’ve been clear they can’t happen again) and I’ve moved on, but clearly she hasn’t.

Would you raise it or just ignore it?

Thanks
AIBU to let it go
AINBU to raise it with her

So the replies have been professional and to the point?? Sounds ok to me!

Hi and thanks etc are pretty unprofessional to be honest.

sounds like a you problem

i think you should look to get rid of this employee at the earliest opportunity!

Withdrawing normal communications in extreme cases could be viewed as harassment, or victimisation (a response because you have complained).

However, I don't think this is remotely near that.

Don’t be so silly. Some sort of greeting at the beginning of an email is professional and expected. To not do so is petty and rude.

Since when did politeness become unprofessional, I've never heard of such a thing in any UK company I've worked for

I'm sure there are cultures where things are different but it that was the case here the OP wouldn't be asking the question

Gosh I must have been doing it wrong for years….

Email written out

Karen,

blah blah blah

regards,

blah

professional and to the point.

But it’s not that. It’s ‘can I have such and such’ with no greeting or sign off of any kind.

Really? So you send emails without, hello/hi/thanks etc? Sounds pretty rude IMO

I wouldn’t say anything at all about this. It’s not a prerequisite to have greetings and thanks in emails. You would be on shaky ground to bring it up, plus she seems like she wants to annoy you and like a bit of a twat (if this is a new curt style). Act completely unbothered and focus on actual performance issues.

complete non issue.

you discussing specific employee issues on Mumsnet is way less professional by a significant margin

So you use the persons name? If you had read the OP correctly you would see that this employee is not using a greeting or a name. And your response to that was to suggest the OP is unprofessional…?

Totally the opposite then than what the employee is doing

Thank you - yes good plan.

Yes, all the time. I might say thanks of something, but I very often don’t start with hi etc, particularly if it’s in a chain or if I’m pinging on attachments.

I guess no kisses and emojis then??

Oh, enough people have wasted entire meetings about smiley faces/thumbs up! And about how offensive Regards can be. Or how Hi is too formal!

This is why it's a good idea to have a fully discretionary bonus system. You can then reward good behaviour more subjectively (and not pay bonus to those who behave in a non collegiate manner).

Well it’s retaliation really isn’t it. If someone has once done politeness and has withdrawn said politeness as a result of performance management then it’s retaliation - in most businesses that would be viewed as a breach of business conduct.

I would suggest a goal of embracing AI in the work place and a good place to start would be to use copilot/AI to help write their emails as you’ve noticed they may be too busy to write them properly!

This is really rude and petty and I’d def mention it if one of my team started doing this.

Is there anyone else on management who can pull her aside and point out she is damaging her professional image by doing this?

is it just internal emails? Bloody annoying, or is it external emails that are going to clients/public facing?

I bet everyone else other than the OP receives courtesy and words like please in emails.

I'd let it go. It's really not that big of a deal be straight to the point when emailing others in the same organisation.

I don't work in an office so the e mails I send are generally polite and as expected but once within an ongoing conversation it's a quick question or reply without formalities.

In reality, face to face, you don't go through the whole hi how are you again and part with kind regards.

What's the point of the extra vocabulary for a quick conversation?

Hi,
Message
Done

If you're all in the same team?

This

It’s just me.