Hey, I was going to have a big recap of yesterday’s public hearing on harassment and sexual misconduct in the workplace at which I testified before the Pennsylvania House Labor and Industry Committee. There’s a lot to discuss, maybe too much for a blog post. So, I plan to write a longer article for the Philadelphia Business Journal.
In the meantime, I want to rant quickly on something that has nothing to do with employment law or HR compliance, other than Human Resource professionals and attorneys are just as guilty of this as anyone else.
Emails that begin with some variant of “hope you are well” bother me.
Ok, I hate them.
(Just so we’re clear, I have nothing against people who use “Hope all is well” in an email. Especially, if you have sent me that email. No hard feelings.)
Apparently, I’m not the only one with a distaste for this small talk. I particularly like this take from Danya Evans at TheCut.com:
“I hope you’re well” is a scourge on email correspondence, a hollow greeting that has come to mean nothing. I’d sooner write the first line of Finnegan’s Wake backwards and in Pig Latin than “I hope you’re well.” The expression has rendered itself so benign in its overuse that our brains are now programmed to ignore it, skipping directly to the point of the email…”
But, am I being uptight about this? Will some of you call me out for “Hope All Is Well Shaming?” Or are most of you part of Team #AllIsNotWellWithHopeAllIsWell.
Friends, let’s settle this once and for all. Please take this one-question survey. And, if you have some good alternatives to that email small-talk dumpster fire, please email me. I’d love to hear from you.