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

I am not sure I'd ignore it if it continues for weeks. A few emails then sure, everyone can have a bad day or just put in a short 1 liner. But if this is how she treats people if she's annoyed at them then you don't want that repeating across other people.
So leave it for a week or so and then I'd write back and just say "dear xxx, I've noted that you're omitting any form of Greetings from your emails. You may want to look at an auto signature or template to make it quicker if you are finding it takes too much time to type it out. "
Something along these lines anyway

Sounds like she's being passive-aggressive but does it actually impact her performance? If not, I would simply roll my eyes on the inside and ignore it.

No term of address (Dear, Hi, Hello etc) before the name is rude, other than that your email is fine.

Just using name is definitely rude.

I sometimes find email language a bit stupid, sent "best regards" tp someone you email everyday.

That said it sounds like something has mentally shifted with this employee. I would start investing the process to dismiss them, and also keep important access away from them.

I wouldn't ignore, it's your company and you can ask for politeness if that's your culture.

If it is just with you and not affecting work otherwise. Let it go. If they are still a bit peeved with you because you raised their serious work issues and are being a bit petty, what can you hope to achieve by raising this? It will likely peter out over time. Rise above it,and roll your eyes at their pettiness.

This sort of thing can escalate otherwise and you will find yourself complaining about everything they do, whilst everything they do is done just on the correct side of doing their job while calculated to annoy you.

Don't be the one to let a completely appropriate confrontation at work, escalate to a petty argument

Just keep an eye on them doing their actual job and raise that if it becomes an issue again, which given the staff member's behaviour sounds like it might again. Don't muddy the waters with petty stuff that does not actually matter for work. Keep any complaints strictly about how they do their job or behaviour to you that is seriously rude, or discrimination etc. Not addressing g tou in emails properly really is not in that category, however annoying it feels

Honestly, at this point I would just let her go. The fact she only started writing like this after the performance review is petty and unprofessional. What happens if there are performance issues in the future you need to raise or a bigger issue? You can’t trust her to react professionally and I wouldn’t want to keep on somebody like that, petty drama has no place in the workplace as far as I’m concerned.

Agree with this. There’s a fairly thin line between requiring appropriate professional behaviour and micromanaging people.

If someone is already predisposed to see your behaviour as petty and punitive this is likely to really escalate and they will not respond well. You could then find yourself in tit for tat where you are scanning their emails for evidence of insubordination. Its a bit Big Brother and it won’t end well.

I think its reasonable to expect courteous and polite behaviour, and to pick someone up if they are not displaying it, but if someone is being professional that should be enough. You don’t own their soul.

A new member of staff and this is her response to a performance review.

Just let her go before it becomes difficult to get rid of her.

We have an email communications policy that requires a greeting at the start of every email.

Kill then with kindness. They’re obviously still feeling ashamed and embarrassed about being called out on previous behaviour. Continue to reply politely and smile and be professional when you see them. They’ll soon get over it.

Just remember they’re your employees not your friends.

God that is so infantilising and micro managed. I would hate to work somewhere people feel they have to programme other people.

Rude

I’d get rid now while you still can. If she’s this useless early on she’ll be a real issue when she gets her feet under the table and the new laws set in

That will grate on her. She's being passive aggressive showing you how angry she is. For you to just ignore that will def annoy her.

Since when is saying “thanks” unprofessional?! What are you supposed to say “with gratitude”?

Hi and thanks are unprofessional?! What a weird response.

Not at all, we're not all in thrall to AI.

You don't have to be in thrall to it, to acknowledge its usefulness as a tool in situations like this.

Technophobia is counterproductive 🤷🏻‍♀️

It has become the done thing to just write a brief email with no top and tail greeting where I work. Might say the occasional cheers or use the thumbs up emoji. It’s a very professional setting. A lot of younger people have never topped and tailed their messages.

I'm actually a tech person. AI can be useful, but we can write emails without it and probably should unless we are really struggling. I don't think it's relevant to this thread.

I do and it doesn't mean the same as professionalism!

In no world is it considered professional practice to ask for advice on you live HR issues on the AIBU section of Mumsnet!

that doesn't mean it's a big deal, a bad idea or anything else, it's just not "professional"

I agree. But this employee does seem to be struggling...?

Might be worth having regular follow up meetings with her to give her positive feedback / acknowledgment that she is now doing ok, ask her how she is feeling, find out if she has any aspirations/issues you can support her with etc to try to mend the relationship further.

don’t mention the emails.

I hate the extra crap. I have to constantly rewrite emails as I am like your employee. I say ‘Mary, please find attached requested form. Monday’. Then I think that sounds a bit perfunctory so add a few things, but resent having to. Work emails should be straightforward and to the point, no need for anything more. I mean I just got a reminder email about an overdue invoice and it started ‘Mrs Monday, I hope this email finds you well…’ Like no you don’t. Or customer service on the phone always start ‘how are you today’. Even online bots write similar waffle. Feck that stop wasting my time!