Email etiquette

With internal emails:

Hi Jim

Please can you blah blah?

Thanks

John

So what if the extra few seconds being polite adds up to a significant amount of resource, is taking the time to be polite a waste of resources?

You've probably guessed I'm not a manager.
 
I find that managers who use as little words as possible are the worst to work for.

I literally go out of my way to be as polite as possible. I use correct greetings and sign offs.

Boils my fluids when I get a reply that's a single word.
 
There's an assistant head at my partners work who replies to emails and changes the subject, cuts people out of CC, replies back 'to' someone other than the original sender and still doesn't cc them.

It's absolutely baffling.
 
Azza said:
There's an assistant head at my partners work who replies to emails and changes the subject, cuts people out of CC, replies back 'to' someone other than the original sender and still doesn't cc them.

It's absolutely baffling.
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I find some managers simply can't use email. I know of a few teachers who were unaware what CC or BCC stand for. I mean... I teach year 7 students what that means...
 
ivrytwr3 said:
He's your boss, not your mate:
  • Opening - no issue with just opening with a name. I start mine with "Team" or the name of the team member i am speaking with. If it's external i will throw in a "good morning/afternoon", but never "hi".

  • Text - i'll usually add a please in mine when giving taskings, but your example text isn't that bad.

  • Sign off - he did add a 'thanks'

  • Initial sign off - i don't like that, especially if the email gets larger and you have to read the trail - could get confusing.
Not too bad, but i've seen much worse.
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Wow...

What's exactly wrong with saying

"Hi Ivrtwr3,

Please see the attached for the information you requested.

Thanks,
Semple"

That's a perfectly acceptable/format/adheres to email etiquette email.

I can't see how "Hi" is any less formal than a Good morning/afternoon.


I do remember when i first started a contracting job, one of the women emailed the boss saying "Hey ABC ...." and he went a bit mental about it.
 
In my previous company, the more senior the management the less words were in the e-mail. So quite a few of the Directors/Heads of just replied with "yes", "free?", "when?" etc.
 
Semple said:
Wow...

What's exactly wrong with saying


I do remember when i first started a contracting job, one of the women emailed the boss saying "Hey ABC ...." and he went a bit mental about it.
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You've answered your own question. 'Hey', 'hi' etc, not very professional or courteous. BUT that's just my opinion. I don't like to see that and so i don't send like that either.

drakulton said:
It looks like military comms which is just pertinant info without the pleasantries.
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Yup, to the point. So many emails from companies that have so much 'flower' in them that you have to read walls of text to either get to what they want or thew answer to the question you have asked.

I also prefer, BLUF - bottom line up front ie

Good morning Boss,

BLUF - Power outage overnight 14 Jun 20; UPS failed.

So straightaway the boss knows the what the email is about and whether it is important or not - the rest of the email is what happened and what was done etc.
 
SideWinder said:
In my previous company, the more senior the management the less words were in the e-mail. So quite a few of the Directors/Heads of just replied with "yes", "free?", "when?" etc.
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Or a huge new tech coming in, reams of text from the email trail and the boss sends you one word, "thoughts?"
 
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