Do YOUR emails offend your colleagues? The Most Passive Aggressive Greetings and Signings Revealed
Office workers have revealed what they believe are the cruelest ways to start and end emails.
Despite good intentions, you may have inadvertently offended your colleagues by using “hiya,” not using a greeting at all, or ending an email with “respectfully.”
A study compiled by US e-learning app Preply revealed the most popular email greetings and unsubscribes, as well as those considered the boldest.
Respondents said they don’t like an email beginning with their name and a colon, or ending with “respectfully” or “cheers.”
They also listed the words and phrases that come across as “tense,” such as ending an email with “kind regards.”
The way you open and close emails can make you appear passive-aggressive to colleagues
The best way to start an email is with a simple “Hello” followed by the person’s name, or “Hello everyone” for a group, and end with a “Thank you.”
The survey, which was backed up by data from more than 1,000 employees, found that nearly 50 percent admitted they could tell a colleague’s mood from the greetings and thank yous they chose.
Another 91 percent said they believed people they worked with were sometimes passive-aggressive over email.
The study also found that Generation Z were the most likely to modify their usual greetings and thank yous to show they were frustrated.
So what are the boldest ways to start and unsubscribe from a business email? With the name Karen filling in, here’s what Femail learned about the opening and closing lines of emails.
More than half thought using the word “everyone” was the best way to address people in a group email, while relatively only 1 percent said using the word “gang” was the best way to address a group email. email to start.
Other aspects of email etiquette were divisive: More than 42 percent said emojis are never appropriate in work communications — though that means more than half don’t mind them, so it’s a bit of a minefield.
While reasons were not given, there was a clearer result for addendums such as “Sent from my phone,” which 51 percent of people want to see done away with.
And 65 percent said they wanted people to stop using, “Sent from my phone, sorry for typos” to wrap up their messages.
It comes after people were urged to stop using the thumbs-up emoji because it can be seen as passive-aggressive and even confrontational, according to Gen Z, who claims they feel attacked when it’s used.
Whether the chat is informal, between friends or at work, the icon appears to have a completely different, ‘rude’ meaning for the younger generation.
A 24-year-old on Reddit summed up the Gen Z argument, saying it “can never be used in any situation,” because it’s “hurtful.”
“Nobody my age in the office does it, but the Gen X people always do it. It took me some time to adjust and get it out of my head that it means they are mad at me,” he added.
Others agreed it’s bad form, especially at work where the team can look unfriendly and unwelcoming.