Annoyance: Emails with no greetings/salutations

[Anonymous]

I'm 42 and think it is rude not to include some sort of greeting (Hi Joe, Good morning Jane,) on the first email, especially if it is someone I haven't worked with in a while. For ongoing back and forth it is not needed. Those who say it takes too much time are full of it. People have no manners anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just curious-- when you receive an email without a greeting/salutation in the intro (e.g. "Beth, The XYZ report needs to be sent to legal vs. Good morning Beth, The XYZ report needs to be sent to legal) does it bother you?

I find it extremely rude, yet a lot of people send emails this way. What gives with not placing a standard greeting in the intro with the person's name? It comes across as abrasive and abrupt. Assuming that you would provide the standard greeting on a phone call or when you walk into someone's office with a similar request, why is it ok to leave it off of an intro to an email?

Just curious - how old are you?

42

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it safe to assume that those of you who don't care about greetings in emails aren't bothered when people don't say hello or good morning to you in person?

No? Those are two entirely different interactions.

It really isn't.

[Anonymous]

Typing a "Hi" or "Good morning" takes at most 1-2 for even the slowest typers in a professional setting...those who say that my glorified profession is too busy to type those salutations obviously are either very incompetent or just have no place as an office professional....

IMO, not putting in the salutation has the same unintended effect of trying to convey sarcasm in writing....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Typing a "Hi" or "Good morning" takes at most 1-2 for even the slowest typers in a professional setting...those who say that my glorified profession is too busy to type those salutations obviously are either very incompetent or just have no place as an office professional....

IMO, not putting in the salutation has the same unintended effect of trying to convey sarcasm in writing....

Seconds*

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Typing a "Hi" or "Good morning" takes at most 1-2 for even the slowest typers in a professional setting...those who say that my glorified profession is too busy to type those salutations obviously are either very incompetent or just have no place as an office professional....

IMO, not putting in the salutation has the same unintended effect of trying to convey sarcasm in writing....

um again we have actual work to do sounds like you need more

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just curious-- when you receive an email without a greeting/salutation in the intro (e.g. "Beth, The XYZ report needs to be sent to legal vs. Good morning Beth, The XYZ report needs to be sent to legal) does it bother you?

I find it extremely rude, yet a lot of people send emails this way. What gives with not placing a standard greeting in the intro with the person's name? It comes across as abrasive and abrupt. Assuming that you would provide the standard greeting on a phone call or when you walk into someone's office with a similar request, why is it ok to leave it off of an intro to an email?

Just curious - how old are you?

42

I'm surprised a Gen-Xer has time to be annoyed by this kind of nonsense. I'd have pegged you as an older Boomer (uptight and stuffy) or a younger millennial/GenZ (who need their hands held and constant praise).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Typing a "Hi" or "Good morning" takes at most 1-2 for even the slowest typers in a professional setting...those who say that my glorified profession is too busy to type those salutations obviously are either very incompetent or just have no place as an office professional....

IMO, not putting in the salutation has the same unintended effect of trying to convey sarcasm in writing....

I hate the word Hi and avoid greetings to avoid its use.

My favorite boss was the one who, upon emailing that he had hired me, said I don’t need to worry about greetings and formality. Just get the job done. Loved that he was upfront so it didn’t take weeks of emailing to realize it was ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just curious-- when you receive an email without a greeting/salutation in the intro (e.g. "Beth, The XYZ report needs to be sent to legal vs. Good morning Beth, The XYZ report needs to be sent to legal) does it bother you?

I find it extremely rude, yet a lot of people send emails this way. What gives with not placing a standard greeting in the intro with the person's name? It comes across as abrasive and abrupt. Assuming that you would provide the standard greeting on a phone call or when you walk into someone's office with a similar request, why is it ok to leave it off of an intro to an email?

Just curious - how old are you?

42

I'm surprised a Gen-Xer has time to be annoyed by this kind of nonsense. I'd have pegged you as an older Boomer (uptight and stuffy) or a younger millennial/GenZ (who need their hands held and constant praise).

For the love of Christ, how is the expectation of manners misinterpreted as the need for constant praise?!

[Anonymous]

Some of us don't have time for this nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Hey Anonymous,

Just curious-- when you receive an email without a greeting/salutation in the intro (e.g. "Beth, The XYZ report needs to be sent to legal vs. Good morning Beth, The XYZ report needs to be sent to legal) does it bother you?

Yes, it does.

I also would prefer that people quote the question they are responding to rather than doing a stream of consciousness where they smash every answer together in one paragraph. This is mainly because people half-ass read emails and skip over pertinent information and questions.

Regards,

Anonymous

[Anonymous]

I'm 43.

To the OP: why does this matter? What purpose does including the recipient's name serve in the case of an email message? What problem does including it solve?

I might do it when sending email to someone for the first time, but I would never do it when interacting with my regular co-workers or friends.

I do have a few business email pet peeves, though:

- use of contractions or non-standard abbreviations (an email message is not a letter, but the use of standard, written English is nonetheless expected in a business context)
- people who quote the entire contents of a previous message when replying, without trimming it (look up "interleaved quoting" to see the proper way to do this)
- extra-long signature files (the de facto limit is four lines or fewer) or useless disclaimers at the bottom of the message
- disclaimers about "sent from my telephone - ignore spelling errors" (this just looks lazy and careless...if typing and proofreading on a telephone is too hard, then wait to send the message until you are near a computer)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I find it extremely rude as well, especially if the person is asking me to do something.

Same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I find it extremely rude as well, especially if the person is asking me to do something.

Same.

Agree and I am 40. Especially now that we don’t even see each other in the hall, I find a hi or good morning goes a long way. I spend a second not minutes or hours typing that.

[Anonymous]

I think it's done with intent. Some type of weird passive aggressive power struggle. All of the weak reasonings provided out here prove my theory.