By disgruntled help desk worker
as per
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As someone who receives 20+ emails a day, I know what reads well in an email. I know when an email is polite and when it’s passive-aggressive and just a little soul crushing – unfortunately the latter makes up 90% of my inbox.
I get it – you want that thing fixed or that other thing done and you want that to happen ASAP.
Don’t get me wrong, I want to help you do the things! It just gets hard to deal with people who call me names over a problem I didn’t cause and am in fact trying to help solve!
This stress-induced list is just a helpful guide of how to write a polite email and in turn, warm my cooling heart.
- Give it some time – don’t email at 7pm and then call me immediately after asking why I haven’t replied…
- Don’t forget the emails are being read by people, not robots, and those people may want to quit and retire to the Bahamas when they’re consistently called a dick – and who will answer your emails then, HUH?
- Don’t sign off passive aggressively. Use ‘kind regards’ or ‘sincerely’ and it should always be paired with a ‘thank you’ (you’re welcome)!
- Realise people have weekends. If you send an email at 5:30pm on Friday night, don’t send a follow up email on Monday at 9am because it may have been two days, but we haven’t been at work!
- If you’re asking for help, please be nice to the person who can help you!
Kind regards,
Disgruntled help desk worker
