Asklemmy

43885 readers

1619 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
[email protected]: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

When / why / how did "I hope you are well" become a standard email intro? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

64 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Practically every email I've received in maybe the past year has started with "I hope you are well". I even had an LLM draft a placeholder email for me and it started with the same thing. This has not always been the case and it's strange to me that everyone I interact with begins their emails with this line. Frankly, it's annoying AF.

What gives? Who started this? Why has it become so prevalent? More importantly, how do we stop it?

While I'm at it, if you work in tech / customer support, I urge you to speak with your supervisors to minimize the boiler plate copy paste trash you insert into your emails. People dealing with shit that's not working as intended or desired do not have the mental or emotional capacity to wade through your platitudinal nonsense. Get to the fucking point.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] peg 9 points 7 months ago (3 children)

I'm decades beyond being junior staff and I'm always nice in my emails. I don't care how long it takes.

[–] toofpic 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I'm 1(one) decade beyond, and I'm super short and direct with a hint of familiarity. It also works, because it feels humble. It is humble, because you can't hide any second meaning behind "I do this, you do that, okay?"

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

There is a difference between nice and overly nice.

And I'm not talking about the time it takes you to be nice, but the time it takes others to process your niceness.

For instance, burying the lede on what the email is for in order to say "I hope this email finds you well". Use that space to get to the point so that the person on your receiving end can process the email quickly. If it is a request, say please but nothing beyond that.

[–] hightrix 1 points 7 months ago

100% agreed. Please and thank you are standard. Pleasant tone and asking to work together rather than giving commands is also.

It takes so very little extra effort to be nice.