Have any of you encountered the folk, typically in a work environment, that whenever they contact anyone, it’s always something along the lines of, “Insert monotone request or statement. Thanks.”
If you do this, or know individuals who do this, what’s the intent behind this style of communication? In my experience, it usually originates from individuals who consider themselves a bit of a VIP. They aren’t necessarily bad people, but are usually either trying to skip proper channels for a request, or correcting someone while having no idea what they’re talking about.
**See this response for additional context.
I always write emails with these items:
Open with their abbreviated title and last name (not ‘ma’am, ‘sir’, or ‘hey’)
End with a sentence that asks for them to please let me know if they have any further guidance, questions, issues or concerns with the topic of the email
And then follow that with ‘thank you’, for having taken the time to read through my email, address my concerns within the email, or provide me with their feedback.
I do this, in every single email, to ensure that no one accuses me of not using their professional titles/names. To ensure that no one accuses me of not being polite.
I’m smart enough to absolutely throw snark into an email, and wrap it in a bow, but I’ll be damned if they call me out on it, because I put ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ in there and correctly titled the recipient. They can be fucked how they took the very professional and polite email.
Also ‘V/r’ in your signature block is BS, and everyone knows it.
What is v/r?
“Very respectfully” they have signature blocks like this:
V/r
Full name
Department
Address
Cell
Etc
When you put ‘v/r’ in your signature block, or write it out in the signature block, we all know it’s part of your signature. You don’t mean it, it’s dumb.
Honestly, I think the nicest thing you can do for people is to make your point quickly and keep it as short as possible.
For peers on collaborative issues:
Hello NJSpradin,
Hope you had an excellent weekend. I’d like to discuss the doohickey problem. I’m leaning towards XYZ, but I’d love to know your thoughts. Let me know when it’s most convenient to meet.
Thanks.
For peers or people that are not doing their job.
Hello NJSpradin,
As discussed, the delivery of the doohickey proposal is needed ASAP. Please make this your priority and let me know if there’s anything you need.
Thanks.
Bullets 2 and 3, the please and thank you portions of my email, is one sentence, and variations* of:
“Please let me know if you have any further guidance, questions or concerns, otherwise thank you.”
It’s pretty brief and doesn’t add too much to the email.
That’s called a compliment sandwich