I’m a big emailer mostly because I hate talking on the phone and I can’t text fast like a teenager. So email it is. Keeps me in contact, lets me receive and send info, creates paper trails at work (ie covering ones arse)–the usual.
Anyway there has been no real etiquette around signing on and off from emails like there is in business letters that we studied in Business Principles in high school. You know Dear Sir/Madam, To Whom it May Concern, Yours sincerely to a known audience, Yours faithfully to a stranger. Lots of rules and formality but way too formal for an email.
Just beginning an email with someone’s name seems sort of rude to me. Kerry seems so much ruder than putting a greeting in front of it but Dear is just a bit stuffy. I usuall go with Hi Kerry or Good morning/afternoon Kerry.
And signing off is just as hard. If its a request for info or help, I usually go with Thanks and sign off. If it’s just passing on info I usually go with Cheers but if it’s formal (and to my boss or the government) I go with Regards. For family and good friends it Love and xxx.
Here’s an email chart along the principals of highly effective people. Where does your signoff chart? Image
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