Emails to Seniors 2

[Mafuta]

I have just run into problem with one of my manngers who warned me on the way I address the Senior managers within my organisation. I did point out exactly what was wrong with my emails to them. I think, he thinks I taking them lightly without enough necessary respect. On contrary, that has not been in my head. I normally write my messages starting with Hi ( 1st name), Hello ( 1st name) e.g

Hi Paul,

............
...........

Regards,
Mafuta.

I consider this warning as a serious issue against my career, the man went as far as suggesting that I should be considered for the course on emailing to be run by HR department. Surely, this sounds akward, an Engineer with years in the field.....not good at all!

Please advise the appropriate way of sending official emails especially when corresponding to someone very senior to you.

Cheers.

 

[magoo2]

I don't see anything wrong or disrespectful in what you wrote. If he weren't one of your managers, I'd tell him "Get a life!" But since he is, you ought to find a way to sit down with him and discuss it. There's a pretty good book called Crucial Conversations that would give you enough strategy on how to do this.

 

[ivymike]

I work in engineering at a large industrial equipment company w/market cap >$40B. I have not yet had a reason to correspond directly via email with vice presidents or the CEO, although I've had a drink or two with at least one VP as part of group of 15 or so at a company function.

I do on occasion need to correspond with the director of engineering for my division, and in those cases I address him by his first name alone:

John,

----

Regards,
Isaac

We have had dozens of face-to-face meetings during my tenure at the company, but I doubt he'd remember my name if we passed on the street (although perhaps he would, since high-up managers tend to have a knack for that). I would not start an email with "Hi John" unless the email was of a personal nature, which wouldn't happen w/this particular director - it's too informal a greeting for the office. There's a director of engineering at another company who I occasionally correspond with, and I initiate my emails to him "Hi Bill," but they're personal in nature.

Even when addressing my peers, "Hi" seems too informal for work... except when dealing with those few overly-sensitive people who must be reminded that we're friends before I ask them to do their job, lest I get put on the back burner.

 

[TenPenny]

I think this question is very culture-dependent, so the only useful advice you'll get is from someone in your own country...I would sit down with your manager and sort out exactly what the issue is, and how to word the emails in the desired way.

 

[SomptingGuy]

Isaac,

Try signing off as "ivymike". See if the dirtector follows e-tips.

- Steve

 

[DRWeig]

VERY culture-dependent, and not just country culture.

I've worked at one company in the US in which it was actually in the employee handbook -- "Courtesy titles required."

I had to address everyone as Mr. Jones, Mrs. Wilson, Doctor Bledsoe, etc... -- in writing, e-mail, and verbally.

More often, it's been quite informal -- but there are sticklers out there.

Good on ya,

Goober Dave

 

[ivymike]

@TenPenny, I got the impression that the OP is someone who works in the US but previously lived in the UK long enough to pick up their spellings.

 

[IRstuff]

There are indeed sticklers, particularly those who work with, or have, PhDs. Many of those demand being addressed as "Dr." even though one could rationally argue that such an address should only be used by those with a medical degree.

Likewise, there are those with doctorates who eschew that title. Obviously, your company has people who are sensitive, and it behooves you to talk to your manager and find out whose toes you've trod on, deal with them accordingly.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[trey25624]

sounds like there could be a language barrier there? One thing you might be doing is telling someone what to do that is senior to your position. Such as..."send me this file". even saying "please send me this file" can sound like you are ordering them around.

One thing i try to do is always pose a question when writing an email to a senior person requesting something. so i would say "could you please send me this file?" that way it doesn't seem like an order. might not be your issue at all, but just throwing that out there.

 

[Twoballcane]

May be you shoud also add emotioncons to the email so that your reader would not take it negative hehe

Tobalcane
"If you avoid failure, you also avoid success."

 

[JohnRBaker]

It depends on what your personal relationship is with these individuals. For example, when I direct an email to our division's CEO I use his first name, not because we're peers. Hardly, I'm 4 levels in the picking order down from him, but because I've known him since before he was even working for our company, when he was an R&D manager at one of our customers (it's a long story as to how he ended up where he is) back in the early 80's. Now don't get me wrong, I don't show quite the same level of familiarity with other senior managers whom I don't have as long a relationship with, but despite the size of our corporation (and this seems to go all the way back to Germany and the parent organization) senior executives of Siemens are very open and friendly and seems to want people to deal with them on a first name basis, which I find refreshing. They also seem to spurn titles, at least when dealing with employees, perhaps it a bit different when dealing with outsiders but inside the company, it's quite informal (even if corporate memos come in German first followed by the English translation).

Actually, our company is more concerned about the way we close an email then as to how we open one. That is, we're required to include a complete signature which shows our full name, title, organization (including the corporate group), location (don't need a street address, but we do need the city, state and country) as well as our phone number.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[MintJulep]

So your manager told you that you're not following the rules, but didn't tell you what the rules are?

And you are apparently afraid to as him what the rules are.

And your company had an internal course on how to email.

Hello Dilbert!

 

[tickle]

My tuppence worth.

It could be that your manager was told to have a word with you by his manager.

Maybe it is the content of the email. Some people, and these are usually graduates, tend to write emails as if they are talking face to face with a person, they use text talk and leave out punctuation. In addition the emails can be too waffley or conversely can be so concise that they are completely unclear.

Please remember that many senior managers are not as internet savvy as you may be.

My recommendation is take the course. You will be surprised at what you learn or are forced to remember. When writing emails, do not send them immediately - leave them a day and then re-read them. Include the spell checker on the email.

 

[HgTX]

I hardly ever use salutations in email, particularly email addressed to individuals, because I figure that's covered by the "to" field.

That said, as others wiser have pointed out, only your internal email course will put the rules down for your particular firm.

Hg

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[apsix]

It does seem a bit petty, but I'd do the course.

To me the slightly informal salutation is fine, but I would expect to see 'reasonably proper' grammar, punctuation and spelling (depending on your relationship).

 

[Mafuta]

Realy grateful for all the contributions. I had a discussion with my manager about the issue and sorted out.I think he perceived wrongly the correspondences between me and the two senior managers (he was copied), he said he noted some statements lacked necessary respect!One of them might have complained but he ddn't say so.
After all it's a minor issue and he took it differently! I'm new to this organisation, some ppl tend to be ???!! to new comers at this stage. Good enough, I'm used these situations.

Much appreciations....

 

[Waidesworld]

And there am I in my bosses office this morning (he's the President of the company) telling him to F%$k off because he was slagging me on something.

Aaah the perception of doing the right thing at times....

drawn to design, designed to draw

 

[Debaser]

Well I've never used the greeting (Hi or Hello), but I thought it was the done thing to just use the first name of the person you are addressing. Even if I've only been given someone's name to contact and I don't know them from Adam it's usually their first name only that goes on the email. If I need to call someone Mr then it needs a letter, not an email.

If I'm sending something to a generic info@... address then I treat it as if I am writing a letter, starting off with Dear Sirs.

Of course we could go back to what they did in my father's generation/place of employment and call colleagues you've known and worked with for 10 years by their surnames, no title, just the surname.

 

[plasgears]

My boss was sensitive about reporting to his boss with copy to him. He wanted me to communicate to him directly on a regular basis.

Notes to upper mgt were reserved for serious issues particularly when asked.

 

[KENAT]

Could be worse, I got banned from emailing folks outside of my dept without my manager approving the email first for a while.

So I dutifully sent all messages to him to review first.

Once a few projects etc. started to slip, and the response of 'I sent it to you for review' become my most commonly used phrase with him, the restriction was lifted.

I agree with others that don't use salutations, just the name. I'll also tend to use 'gents' - something I picked up at my first employer in the UK - for group emails. Just be careful there's no folks of the female persuasion on the distribution!

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