Salutational Shenanigans

Sometimes the dumbest things tick me off.

Today, the dumb thing that's bugging me is e-mail etiquette (or the lack thereof). I'm not even talking about obvious things that everyone is more or less aware of  -  things like - don't "reply all" to a whole list of people just to say "thanks"  - or - don't e-mail 27MB attachments - or - don't forward stupid chain letters.

Instead, what's bugging me today is the greeting or closing people use in their e-mails. I work in an extremely e-mail-centric environment, where it seems like 90% of my daily communication (even with people who sit in the next cubicle over) is by e-mail. I get lots of e-mail everyday - enough to have grown to be very picky about how a proper e-mail message should be structured. (Talking here about work-related e-mails, not personal e-mails...)

Is it too much to ask for the sender to start the message with "Hello Todd" or "Hi Todd" or even just "Hi"? If you send me a message with no greeting at all, it just puts me in the wrong frame of mind immediately. It's not necessary to be overly formal, but it's kind of nice to be "greeted." It's no different from having someone walk up to you and just start giving commands or asking questions without saying "hi" first. It's just kind of rude and puts me in no mood to pay attention to the rest of the message.

If you can't bring yourself to say "Hello" or "Hi", at least start the message with my name:

         "Todd, would you please do x, y, and z for me?"

Just don't start the message with no greeting. That really annoys me.

Almost as annoying are those people who don't use a pleasant or respectful closing.

Most people around here close their e-mails either with "Regards"  or  "Best regards". Usually, unless I'm annoyed at the person I'm writing to, I close mine with Best regards. If I'm annoyed, I'll just close with a plain ol' Regards, thinking there's no point in wishing the "best" of anything.

Unlike how the lack of a greeting bothers me, though, the lack of a closing really doesn't bother me. If people just sign their name at the bottom of the message without any kind of closing, that's OK. It just means they're all business. Since it's at the end of the message, I guess it doesn't put me in the wrong frame of mind to read the message like the lack of a greeting does.

The thing about closings that really bugs me is when people abbreviate the closing. Like, they type "Rgds" instead of "Regards". Or "BR" for "Best regards". Is it really that freakin' much more time consuming to type 3 more letters to actually spell the word?

OK. I feel better now that that's off my chest, and just in time for the weekend!