Gen Z communication styles

[grumpygenx]

You can tell from my username where I am going with this.

I absolutely despair with some of Gen Z correspondence styles in formal settings.

starting formal email correspondence with ‘Hi there , my name is ….

or signing off formal letters with ‘best wishes’ …

one reason why we need to be in office more supporting the younger generation. What did they learn in school about letter writing !!!

I find if you go off script when being served in shops, most look me me blankly. It is like they're trained like robots, because they're so used to everything being online, and telling them the answer. I am a millennial, but the world was a different place when I was a teenager, you interacted with people.

As a fellow GenX, frankly, I think you need to lighten up a bit.

Honestly, so what if the communication style has evolved and changed? So what if a formal letter is signed off with "best wishes" instead of "yours sincerely " or "yours faithfully"? Do the niceties really matter if the content of the letter is sound? Is adhering to traditional etiquette always superior to alternative expressions of good will?

Times change. Etiquette changes. Communication styles change. And honestly, if your only complaint about GenZ is that they don't communicate in quite the same way that you were taught to communicate 40+ years ago, then be glad that that's all you've got to worry about.

Perhaps they are complaining about those grumpy GenX colleagues who are so rigidly wedded to their old fashioned ways?

What's wrong with Best wishes?
Genuinely curious - I'm an ESL person in a pretty informal work environment, my two (one millennial, one boomer) bosses use "thanks" or "cheers" 😅, I start formally then adapt to the style of the recipient

Do people still write letters? I'm 47 and can't remember the last time I wrote a letter.

Actually - I do mean it! I save the 'I hope you're well' or 'I hope this finds you well' for the people I know well but haven't spoken to in a while.

I still do

not really, but I may try bringing it back because it is much nicer than my usual “best regards” on emails.

Gen X or born in 1908? I’m also old and “Hi”and “Best Wishes” are standard and have been for decades.
Do you still fax?

My DH and I are both Gen X and he hates it when young whippersnappers start emails with "Hey."

The issue is that they don't half ever need to write letters as gen X have needed to. So they write letters the same way they write emails.

Frankly, there much more annoying things than that and most likely, by the next generation, letters won't exist at all any longer anyway.

Agree! I’m Gen X almost old enough to be a Boomer.

Forsooth, perhaps we should go back to the good old days of Shakespearean English and write letters instead of emails and use quills.

You are behind the times. Companies have been informing staff of redundancy or otherwise dismissing by text message for some time. The regulatory documents follow, but in effect they are dismissed by text.

Yes

That word isn’t usually used on here. It’s seen as disablist.

Me too. If I use it, I mean it.

I just end my emails with my name, and start them with hi, given up with formality altogether as I can never remember what's right to use. So much easier being formal in Finnish, you just switch to plural 'you' instead of singular, like in French with vous and tu.