Comments on: Workplace Passive-Aggressive Phrases that Everyone Should Use

By: Steve K

Steve K — Fri, 07 Feb 2020 01:27:22 +0000

‘Your call is very important to us’
=
‘but not important enough to hire more people to answer the phone.’

By: Jessie Hookie

Jessie Hookie — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 06:55:15 +0000

Thanks for sharing this valuable information with us, it is a really helpful article!

By: Semi-Evil Tech Mgr

Semi-Evil Tech Mgr — Sun, 02 Feb 2020 21:52:24 +0000

I’m a bit torn…

I’ve been guilty of all of these at one point or another, especially the “per my last email” response. On one hand, the utter tsunami of emails that people get I can understand how mine might be lost or forgotten. But on the other hand is it too difficult to sort by name or do a search?

I guess if I can take 15 seconds to research a response, I feel others should too.

Anything regarding interpretation of emails to me is not worth it. People constantly misread and misunderstand the written word for so many reasons. In those cases, I just pick up the phone.

By: Mr Remote not Obvious

Mr Remote not Obvious — Fri, 31 Jan 2020 15:41:00 +0000

You betcha! It’s bad enough when I have to listen to the presenter’s kid in the background, let alone everyone else’s!

By: Mr Remote not Obvious

Mr Remote not Obvious — Fri, 31 Jan 2020 15:39:05 +0000

In reply to James. You betcha! It's bad enough when I have to listen to the presenter's kid in the background, let alone everyone else's!

By: MK

MK — Fri, 31 Jan 2020 13:53:30 +0000

I don’t use “Per my last email” anymore. The phrase I use is: “Please refer to the emails below” when forwarding emails already addressing the situation. Short & to the point.

By: BethRA

BethRA — Thu, 30 Jan 2020 14:40:23 +0000

I have used all of those phrases in a non-passive-aggressive way: people can legitimately remember conversations differently, they may interpret things differently, and “I’ll let you take it from here” means I’m not going to get in your hair.

The exception for me is “per my earlier email…” which is very much me being po’d that you didn’t bother to read your email or aren’t paying attention (or are trying to throw me under the bus).

By: old_engineer

old_engineer — Thu, 30 Jan 2020 14:38:07 +0000

Pro-active tops my list. This from a boss whose primary skill was plagiarism. When the president announced a complete revision of the pricing system (over 50% – to increase the user base while changing the revenue model – “big iron” had died due to Moore’s Law) said boss was unable to create the press release. “Not enough time to do a good job. I am too busy selecting the literature fort the next trade show,” was the manager’s response. Still reeling over that one.

By: Mr. Cajun2core

Mr. Cajun2core — Thu, 30 Jan 2020 14:24:41 +0000

I was in a customer service/tech support role. I have used “I am sorry that I wasn’t clear enough in my last email” so many times I have lost count.

As stated in the article, it can mean anything from “Did you even read the email?” to “You are an idiot!” to “That is NOT what I said.”

By: James

James — Thu, 30 Jan 2020 14:22:47 +0000

Where I work, “Sorry, I was on mute” means “I was eating and didn’t want you all to have to listen to me chew,” or (since so many of us work remotely), “The kids were screaming in the background/trucks were going by/other noisy thing was happening and I don’t want you all going deaf”. Default is to be on mute unless you have a comment to make.