How do you habitually sign off your e-mails? “Yours Sincerely”? “Best Wishes”? “TTFN”?
At the weekend I was in a seminar given by a partner in a big City accountancy firm. This man told us that he has a friend at church who always signs off his e-mails ‘Big love’, and a colleague at work who signs his ‘Keep attacking’.
In two words, these two men have each summed up their attitude to life and thus their message to the world. One is motivated by success achieved through power, the other by success attained through love.
Scanning through my In Box, it seems that for the most part in informal e-mails we no longer bother to sign ourselves off at all, but in business e-mails I generally need to, and want to find something as good as these (though perhaps a little more all-purpose than either!).
When I worked in a Christian missionary organisation, I signed off with ‘Yours in His service’. I don’t do that now because, although it is still true, I often write to people of other faiths or of no religion, and while I have no intention of hiding my faith from them, I don’t feel that that is the best way of building the bridge in my current context.
Annoyingly, though, I haven’t managed to come up with anything pithy that works for semi-formal e-mails to people from a range of backgrounds, so I’ve settled on the rather lame (and inaccurate) ‘Yours’.
Have you got any better ideas? How do I make a culturally-transformative statement to everyone to whom I communicate? I’d love to hear them.
His,
Jennie
on May 29th at 10:36 pm
I generally sign, “take care”.
Take Care
Angela
on Aug 29th at 12:18 am
I have sometimes written, ‘With kind regards’. I saw it in a semi business letter I received and quite liked it. To friends tho I sign off with TTFN or Bye for now, Take care, etc. TTFN, Celia. x
on Aug 29th at 8:04 am
I like both of those, thanks ladies.
Of course, Celia’s sign off adds a new dimension, which is that I’ve got so much in the habit of putting an x or two at the end of messages to friends that I keep nearly doing it to my male bosses! Not appropriate at all!
Take care, Jennie xx