Annoyance: Emails with no greetings/salutations

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like this is a Millennial vs. Gen X thing. I'm Gen X and I find only the Millennials don't bother with a greeting.

Listen, manners count. I don't care whether it's an email, a letter, or a note in a bottle: manners count.

Gen X here. I don’t do a greeting except the initial email. But if I’ve already talked to you that day, or if its a reply to an existing string, no greeting.
I work with Boomers - they don’t do it either.
I work in IT, so it may be more related to industry than age.
The only people that send me emails with greetings are salespeople.

[Anonymous]

I’m 47 and I think that salutations are weird in an email to a colleague. I certainly wouldnt say “Dear Barb,” to one of my colleagues—it sounds condescending. And “Hi Barb” seems weird to me too-hi is something you say when you see someone. Who would ever start a letter with “Hi” (unless you are passing a note in 5th grade: “Hi!!!! Do you want to meet at the slide at lunch????? From: Susie.”)
I can’t believe people get irritated by this stuff. Don’t take things so personally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't start an email with a greeting and hate it when people respond with one.

Me too! I view it as a text pretty much. Some email need to be more formal, but for friends or frequent back and forth, nah!

[Anonymous]

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?

I find it rude that you didn't start this post with a greeting/salutation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like this is a Millennial vs. Gen X thing. I'm Gen X and I find only the Millennials don't bother with a greeting.

Listen, manners count. I don't care whether it's an email, a letter, or a note in a bottle: manners count.

Gen X here. I don’t do a greeting except the initial email. But if I’ve already talked to you that day, or if its a reply to an existing string, no greeting.
I work with Boomers - they don’t do it either.
I work in IT, so it may be more related to industry than age.
The only people that send me emails with greetings are salespeople.

This is true. I used to work in HR; 100% greetings/salutations. Now I work in IT; about 20% greeting/salutations. No one is rude. It's just a different expectations. And IT people are more efficiency-minded, I think, and don't bother with redundancies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I definitely use salutations externally. Internally with people senior to me, people I’m not often emailing, or if I’m asking something. But if I’ve emailed you several times in the past week or day—especially about the same project—and we work closely together, I might not use one.

I actually cringe at “good morning” or “have a great weekend,” because they presume I’m reading the email around the time you sent it, which is rarely the case.

This.

[Anonymous]

I also really don't like email for short and quick information. Use the chat client for that. Email is for when you need to share more information or an attachment and require a significant follow up.

[Anonymous]

I find it very rude and I hate emails without some form of greeting. To me emails between colleagues or clients or employers / employees are not like texts to family / friends at all.

Emails without greetings implies a familiarity and comfort level that isn't there. The emails often come across as demands / orders/ rude.

We used to teach at a college and we taught the students email etiquette as an email consisting only of 'when's the exam' isn't going to get a response or leave a good impression. You also shouldn't use text speak and abbreviations in emails. Basic courtesy is expected.

In academics, everyone uses salutations to communicate. As others have said, once you get into a back and forth it becomes less formal but we definitely use greetings and signatures. Same in my current job.

[Anonymous]

Hello Everyone!

I hope everyone is having a good afternoon.



Thanks!
Bob

[Anonymous]

Most esteemed prior poster,

I am most grateful for your kind message expressing hope that my afternoon is good. It is quite good and I look forward to a good evening as well. I pray that your evening is as advantageous to you as I expect mine will be to me.

Your dearest friend,
Next poster

[Anonymous]

Hello all:

I am also in the camp of people who absolutely hate emails without a greeting. If we are going back and forth, then fine, but the initial email needs to say something and not just launch into info/tasks.

I also need a thoughtful subject line, complete sentences, and formatting. Editing is nice too. 2 paragraph email that could have been 2 sentences is super annoying. Oh, and a due date or some idea as to the priority of the request. Don't just send me something (especially without saying hi) and expect immediate action. You're not texting me. This is a business communication and I expect it to be treated as such.

Thanks,
Your favorite colleague

[Anonymous]

If the content of the email is longer than a sentence or two, a greeting is appropriate.

Often, email is used more like texting or IM/chat. I actually don't like that use of email - if we're in the same organization, we have an internal chat medium (Skype, Teams, etc) - use that for one-liners. But many people still default to email for everything, and sometimes it's a one-line response to a longer email. In those cases, I think it's silly to have a formal greeting, 5 words of content, and a sign-off line. Just write what you need to write.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You all are insane. You really need to have a good morning in order to be receptive to a work request? How old are you?

Old... very old...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ugh, no this does not annoy me. I work in biglaw. If that annoyed me I'd be insane.

I was amazed at the difference in how people wrote emails when I moved from biglaw to non-profit. It definitely took me awhile to get used to how "nice" people were in e-mails--in biglaw I was lucky to get three words (or a response at all). It's definitely an industry/culture thing in my experience, not an age thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Initial email, I include greeting. But the back and forth on a topic? No greeting. It’s a conversation.

This is fine. Similar to saying hello or good morning the first time you see a person for the day, but not repeatedly throughout the day.

I live in the south and I was told that I have to acknowledge people if I see them multiple times throughout the day. I don't get it