jam25mack

I wish, my whole life is email..... I must get and reply to 100+ in a day from several different countries. In Eng design you need the trail.....

I never do after hours emails though. I don't even have them on my phone. Screw that!

Irishbeekeeper

Hello (if I dont know the person)
Hi (if I do)

blah blah

best regards (if I dont know the person)
cheers (if I do)

and btw dont you just hate the people who will call you the second they hit send on an email saying 'oh sirrrrrrrrrrrr, I sent you an email sirrrrrrrrrr, can you respond sirrrrrrrrrrr' (to be read in an accent of your choice)

Miss Ann Thrope

I'm shocked and disappointed at the sheer lack of pedantry on this thread. What has happened to this bored?

Let me try and partly compensate... I think "kind" anything is highly inappropriate. Kindness is an attribute that is only significant when observed, never when claimed. If a person describes themselves as "kind" then I am pretty sure they are anything but. And this applies also to the "regards" or anything else that they might be offering.

I believe "Thanks" is a perfectly appropriate email sign off. It is relevant and functional in a communication that is meant to be those things without excessive formality or flummery. "Best wishes" is a bit more personal if there is a relationship that one wishes to sustain or nurture. "Thanks and best wishes" is really trowelling it on.

Of course, as Millhouse pointed out, all the joyous subtleties of English passive-aggressive signalling are completely lost on most of the recipients in this region and indeed in most of the world. After all, English is the second language, at best, for most people in the world and Australians.

scrubbedexpat141

Just imagine if you actually responded to someone's email telling them that 'kind' regards are highly inappropriate and....and....and....I think they'd be asleep before managing to delete it.

scrubbedexpat141

Totally forgot.

Appalling grammar (not just a bit off, everyone can make mistakes) and spelling mistakes in emails are just bizarre.

Especially the latter - it's a total joke to send an email in a semi or formal setting with spelling mistakes. It tells even the biggest idiot if they've made a error.

UKCityGent

I usually use "Hi" and sign off "<my initials>".


Every role I have refused to take a company mobile - when I leave the office I have left (however I have returned half-way many times just to resolve an issue!)

weasel decentral

I have some kind of automated fixed signature on work emails that I can't change, it says 'Regards'. Though I can edit it slightly before I send the email but I generally don't bother.

Dear ****wit,
You have royally ****ed up once again, and by association also ****ed up the plans of a number of normally competent individuals.

Please remove your calamity generating operation from my project post haste, and bring it somewhere else preferably far from here.

Regards

Meow

This thread is making me a little paranoid. I don't really pay that much attention to how people sign off their emails and just use kind regards (thinking I was being pleasant), regards (if they have annoyed me) or best wishes (if I like them) without really thinking about it.

Are people over-thinking this?

jam25mack

Oh dear me NO!

You can say a lot without actually saying anything with how you start and finish and email....

Meow

Yes but I think the 'kind regards' bit is overthought. It's just habitual.

Miss Ann Thrope

Or, you just hadn't thought enough about it.....

Bahtatboy

I hadn't thought about that ...

scrubbedexpat141

I haven't got time to think about that.

Thanks Kind Best Regards Wishes Cheers,

Meow

Still better than the standard sign off from a colleague a few years ago. She always wrote, 'Assuring you of my best intentions at all times'.

Meow

If I could be bothered I'd check some of my past emails...