Have any of you encountered the folk, typically in a work environment, that whenever they contact anyone, it’s always something along the lines of, “Insert monotone request or statement. Thanks.”
If you do this, or know individuals who do this, what’s the intent behind this style of communication? In my experience, it usually originates from individuals who consider themselves a bit of a VIP. They aren’t necessarily bad people, but are usually either trying to skip proper channels for a request, or correcting someone while having no idea what they’re talking about.
**See this response for additional context.
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I think it’s just to be polite. It’s nice to thank people for doing something for you. Would you rather they just aggressively bark orders at you like a drill sergeant?
I don’t know that this will have any impact on your opinion, but here’s a reply that provides the context I should have included in my original post.
Yeah that guy sounds shady… He’s clearly putting a thanks at the end to make it seem like it is “no big deal” in hopes that you’ll just do it and not ask any questions.
I would respond to that with something like “I’d be happy to send you some new Air pods, just have requisitions send me the request and I’ll get them to you right away! Thanks!” lol
If he still won’t take the hint let him know you’ll be happy to reach out to IT so they can investigate why the request system isn’t working properly for him 😉
I’m thanking the person for hearing the request I’m asking of them and/or doing the thing I’m asking them to go.
Yeah it’s pretty straight forward, I’m looking for ‘xyz,’ thanks lol
How about, “do it now, bitch!”?
No, you. Thanks
I started adding thanks to the end of my communications when my work said I wasn’t very nice in my interactions. They wanted me to ask how people are and say thanks have a good day and all the things that have nothing to do with the information I needed. I thought I was just being efficient yet others thought I was rude. I’m also on the spectrum so that may be the issue. Thanks
Being on the spectrum and navigating office politics can be a nightmare. I’m not sure why people want everything to be “nice.” Now I’m dealing with the opposite problem though. I need to set boundaries and be very opinionated. I’ve spent 10 years ish dialing it back and now I need to dial it back up.
I guess it’s because people like the OP will scrutinize every word and associate some malicious intent to it.
What? That’s just a normal way of communicating anything via text in a professional setting. Neutral language, brief, with a generic but appreciative sign off.
usually either trying to skip proper channels for a request, or correcting someone while having no idea what they’re talking about.
I associate this with messages that are informal and overly friendly.
I’m very confused by OP.
Yeah, my own fault for not including the proper details. If you’re interested, you might find some clarity in this response.
I always write emails with these items:
-
Open with their abbreviated title and last name (not ‘ma’am, ‘sir’, or ‘hey’)
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End with a sentence that asks for them to please let me know if they have any further guidance, questions, issues or concerns with the topic of the email
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And then follow that with ‘thank you’, for having taken the time to read through my email, address my concerns within the email, or provide me with their feedback.
I do this, in every single email, to ensure that no one accuses me of not using their professional titles/names. To ensure that no one accuses me of not being polite.
I’m smart enough to absolutely throw snark into an email, and wrap it in a bow, but I’ll be damned if they call me out on it, because I put ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ in there and correctly titled the recipient. They can be fucked how they took the very professional and polite email.
Also ‘V/r’ in your signature block is BS, and everyone knows it.
What is v/r?
“Very respectfully” they have signature blocks like this:
V/r
Full name
Department
Address
Cell
Etc
When you put ‘v/r’ in your signature block, or write it out in the signature block, we all know it’s part of your signature. You don’t mean it, it’s dumb.
Honestly, I think the nicest thing you can do for people is to make your point quickly and keep it as short as possible.
For peers on collaborative issues:
Hello NJSpradin,
Hope you had an excellent weekend. I’d like to discuss the doohickey problem. I’m leaning towards XYZ, but I’d love to know your thoughts. Let me know when it’s most convenient to meet.
Thanks.
For peers or people that are not doing their job.
Hello NJSpradin,
As discussed, the delivery of the doohickey proposal is needed ASAP. Please make this your priority and let me know if there’s anything you need.
Thanks.
Bullets 2 and 3, the please and thank you portions of my email, is one sentence, and variations* of:
“Please let me know if you have any further guidance, questions or concerns, otherwise thank you.”
It’s pretty brief and doesn’t add too much to the email.
That’s called a compliment sandwich
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I usually say thanks to either show genuine appreciation or to not sound demanding.
You get “regards,” “best regards,” or if we do a lot of work together, " best," from me. I’ll usually express any gratitude on a separate line.
Thank you for all the work you put into this thread, OP!
Regards,
OhmsLawn
Thanks is a less formal thank you.
Maybe OP thinks that someone is dissing them by being informal?
Dunno
I end every work email with thanks, because if I’m emailing you, it’s probably because I need you to do something. It’s your job to do it, so I assume you will, so thanks in advance for your help.
I’m not sure I understand your problem with this. Are you perceiving being asked to do a task as rude or are you just annoyed at being asked at all?
"Insert monotone request or statement. Thanks.” Is just an objective and no fluff way of saying “You need to do this” by a manager or someone tasked with delegating work.
I read an article about Gen Z communication and one of the things it talked about was the clash between established norms and Gen Z’s unwillingness to follow said norms.
That one has been a popular rant literally since Ancient Greece, and probably much longer.
That reminds me of a generational difference I heard about where when someone says “Thank you”, the older generation will say “you’re welcome”, seeing that they did something worth thanking. But the younger generation feels uncomfortable saying “you’re welcome” and says “no problem” instead, implying it was simply an expected thing for them to do.
I’m in the “no problem” generation. And yeah, saying “you’re welcome” really does just feel weird to me.
Have you ever done something that was difficult but you wanted to help someone out?
“No problem” implies to me that it was easy or simple. Regardless of difficulty, “you’re welcome” means you would do it again.
Sorry about that, thanks
What gets to me is the “Thanks in advance”. I might be alone in this, I asked a co-worker and she said it just seemed like normal dialogue, but I interpret that as “You don’t have a say in the matter, you will do this, your consent is not needed”. Granted, the people who say this to me are my boss or director, so they’re right, I don’t have a choice. But if I wanted to be reminded of reality, I wouldn’t play so many video games.
This. It’s the presumption of a done/deal with no comment period. If it’s coming from C-Suite, then yeah, I’m their whipping boy unless they are telling me to do something extremely stupid in an area where I am the subject matter expert (then I just get it in writing that this is a terrible idea that I advised against and do it anyways because they own me). However, what I’m referring to are the individuals that have no grounds to assume they can issue me any sort of directive.
