E-mails starting without greeting, just name

[D3K]

I'll use James here as an example. Start e-mail:

James,

Blah blah blah blah

as opposed to:

Hi James,

blah blah blah

Hello James,

blah blah blah

The former is really grating me these days on internal comms. It feels far too authoritative. Some customers do it also, but never suppliers.

Anyone else bothered by this?

 

[D3K]

I applaud your content-focus. If I were busier I may not notice it as much

I am definitely one of the more anal people with things like this (exacerbated from a history of teaching international business communication abroad), but when I see the same daily culprits then e-mail a customer in the politer tone... its time to make threads.

 

[D3K]

Everyone's got a job to do and hundreds of emails to skim through daily.

Massive generalisation here.

Your post was a cherry picked scenario which essentially negates the need for politeness, and also implies you have some familiarity with the person. Try the "John, you're going into the sewers tomorrow", with a CC list including your boss and a plethora of others, for a diametrically opposite example.

Two letters and a space: "Hi " is not a massive undertaking for something which has a positive effect on a percentage of the workforce, especially when the familiarity level is quite low. If this doesn't trigger your personal politeness alarm, but you are aware of it, why not just add it? I'm sure most of us don't give a hoot about elbows on tables, but don't do it because it's regarded as impolite.