You put together this crazy long report for your commander because that is what he asked for. You send it to him and 300 other people in your command and you sign the email “Thank you!”
You get a call from 14 people asking about a leak that had nothing to do with your command taking up 140 minutes you could be doing something else. You end the call with “Thanks.”
Your super excited (and often bored) co-worker sends you stories that have nothing to do with your command and are just distracting from the mission. You respond with “Thanks for sending.”
Thank you for what? Do you want more? You might as well write, “Thank you, sir, may I have another?”.
Think about it. How often does the J2 or J3 end his or her emails with “Thank you!”? Umm not as much as PAOs, from my experience.
Like most things I blog about, I got called out for using “Thank you” when it did not apply. I was on autopilot. I wanted to be polite, but I was being a poor communicator. I did not need to say that to be polite, professional and a good communicator. So naturally, I am now super critical about how I end my emails.
Words mean things. We’ve all heard this. Choose your words wisely and make sure you are sending the right message even when you sign your emails.
We are communicators. Is “thanks” the message you always want to send? Be careful what you ask for and remember that you’re always messaging.
