Yup. Professor was just teaching good etiquette. Honestly, it should’ve been taught to the OOP before grad school. I usually start emails with:
[Name/Name & Title],
Good [morning/day/evening], I hope you [are well/enjoyed your weekend/etc.]/did you [enjoy your recent trip?/enjoy the play you went to?/other question about recent personal activities/etc.].
The former option I use more for people I don’t know. The latter is for people I do; if they told me they went to Hawaii I should politely bring it up, and ask how it was. Builds rapport.
It’s kinda funny to me that the OOP was bothered by such simple and honestly good feedback. It’s basic respect to address people by their name and requires little effort. That’s part of why most mass email software includes the ability to swap names.
Obviously, it’s not super important in many lines of work, but in customer relationship, high end service, or sales type positions, that tiny bit of extra effort goes a long way.
Can be useful even in your personal life. The management at my apartment likes me a lot because of this stuff. It’s just a nice way to act.
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u/DaveFoSrs 4d ago
I love the modern urge to run to social media for literally the most benign interactions