I hope you are well

[0000]

Standard st sandwich email format isn't it?

Hope you're well.

Start doing your fking job properly you wker or you'll be out on your arse.

Kind regards

[anonymous-user]

I'm beginning to see why the match.com threads are so popular on here.

[944fan]

Vocal Minority said:

friendly start to the email rather than 'Oi! fk-knuckle!'

I am definitely starting all my emails with Oi fk-knuckle from now on. On a related note, out sales director when he emails me doesn't do the "I hope you are well". He starts it Dear , and ends it with You wker. Think it is some kind of motivation way of speaking. I quite like it, at least it is genuine.

[PurpleMoonlight]

In my last three emails from E.ON

Thank you for your email, I hope you are having a lovely day.

I hope you’ve had a great weekend.

Thanks for the email, I hope you’re well and having a good day.

[944fan]

I get what you are saying courtesy etc but does it not seem completely ingenious? Especially when they phrase it as a question "I hope you are well?"

I note how some people put it as a statement "I hope you are well" That I can agree with, they are saying I hope you are not suffering with a bad dose of the clap, here is a pile of work related st for you.

It doesn't bother or annoy me and perhaps I am a social tt but I would only ask someone if they are well if I actually cared about the answer.

[Cotty]

el stovey said:

Yup these niceties just lead to confusion. What we need is a complete lack of warmth and empathy in emails, Work correspondence especially should be almost Spocklike in its cold, distant directness.

It has been mentioned that my emails come across just like that. On more that one occasion I have been asked if I can soften them up a little.

Most of the people I deal with can't be bothered being nice its just "SHOW ME THE MONEY"

[EnglishTony]

Yes thanks and you?

[Vocal Minority]

el stovey said:

Vocal Minority said:

I have to say, getting visibly annoyed about it is somewhat odder than asking it in my book!

Or do I need a whoosh parrot and its a grammar point?

You're one of those people with empathy and feelings aren't you?

Afraid so. I envy bds - life must be quite a lot easier.

[EnthusiastOwned]

My colleague says:

"I hope this e-mail finds you well"

What a non greeting. WTF!

[snobetter]

Reminds me of the thank you letters I had to write to family members after receiving presents when I was a child, put a pleasantry in before the purpose of the letter.
Dear Great Aunt Agnes
I hope you are well.
Thank you for walrus cleaning kit, I can't wait until I can try it.
I'm enjoying school. Hope to see you soon.
Love Snobetter.

[Rich A]

I write this sometimes. I'm paranoid now. Should I stop, or will those who know me well enough think i've started to become an impolite prick? Way to trigger workplace email anxiety, PH.

[Muzzer79]

Rich A said:

I write this sometimes. I'm paranoid now. Should I stop, or will those who know me well enough think i've started to become an impolite prick? Way to trigger workplace email anxiety, PH.

Don't worry - there's a large portion of posters on here with all the social skills of Dustin Hoffman in Rainman. A polite greeting on an e-mail doesn't offend the other 99% of the population.

[Disastrous]

This place is just incredible sometimes. Does it really need to be explained that it's just a societal convention to signify that the sender wishes to convey his regards before immediately jumping into the business in the body of the mail?

Of course it's broadly meaningless but like asking "how do you do?" it is a way of showing that you are reasonably socially adroit and capable of manners.

But no, of course peolle have to pretend they don't understand it and can't see the point in wasting pixels on social graces blah blah.

Classic PH.

Kind Regards,

Disastrous.

Ps, one thing that has always puzzled me:

I used to work with a bloke who had set his autosignature to the following:

KR,

D.

I could never get my head round the fact that he didn't seem to even have the free time to be able to type out "Kind regards, David" even once to set up the autosig. What sort of message does that send? "I'm so busy and important I have to abbreviate an automated reply". Mental.

[mudster]

227bhp said:

When I go to the shops they ask me if i'm alright.

A. They don't know who I am nor care.
B. If I say no they don't know what to say.
I have no idea why they ask, why not just say 'Hello, that's £6.99'.

I had a client ring me and ask how I was. At the time I had a stinking cold and spent 5 seconds stating as much. His response was "actually, I don't care. I was just being polite". Which I thought was kinda rude. 😃

If you ask, at least spend a few brief moments to hear the response. I will continue to appraise people of my wellbeing if they ask. ☺

[John D.]

227bhp said:

When I go to the shops they ask me if i'm alright.

A. They don't know who I am nor care.
B. If I say no they don't know what to say.
I have no idea why they ask, why not just say 'Hello, that's £6.99'.

I made the mistake of going to one particular check-out two weeks on the trot recently. The friendly lady wants to know all about my weekend and if I'm having a nice time. I have zero interest in telling her and really find it quite irritating. Second time I just ignored her beyond saying hello and thank you for my receipt. Think she got the message.

I know, I sound like a barrel of laughs.

[Digitalize]

Isn't it part of being British to always ask how someone is, and answer before actually starting your intended conversation? Of course only responding with something at least partially positive that requires no more probing.

[sebhaque]

I usually start my emails to customers with "Good morning/afternoon/evening", I often say "I hope you are well" in the second line of my message. Obviously if it's just a one-liner email, I probably won't bother, but I don't see a problem in a polite five-word sentence to preface the body of my email.

Some things lost in translation can make me smile sometimes - I deal with a lot of foreign companies across Europe, for whom English isn't a first language. While their grasp of the language is very good, there's one French chap I deal with who equates "Good morning" to equate to "I hope you are having a good morning" - same for the other times of the day. Always nice to see his name on an email reply and open it to read "Bonjour Seb, I hope your afternoon is good too."

[tribbles]

If one of my colleagues starts a Skype chat with the words "How are you?" or similar, then I know that this is a prelude to a question which is going to take me an hour answer.

So when they do, my reply is always "So it's a really difficult question you're about to ask, right?"

[Cotty]

tribbles said:

If one of my colleagues starts a Skype chat

I have Skype but don't use it, is it a useful tool?

I just find that if someone wants to ask me a question other than using a phone they can email me. Am I missing something?

[TheExcession]

chr15b said:

a bit like smiling before answering the phone?

That's ace and I will try this in future. I fvckin hate it when the phone rings - it's always someone else's problem that I'm supposed to fix. I'm going to try the smiler approach from now on.