Old Dogs
Guests email their cruise questions to our department and I am one of the people that answer blindly, usually signing “Best Regards, Land Programs.” That’s my department at Crystal Cruises, Land Programs, which consists of 8 women and 1 man (the Director, who travels 6 months out of the year).
I bring this up because I have lost count of the number of emails sent to Land Programs, from guests, that were addressed, “Dear Sirs” or “Dear Sir” or simply “Sir.” Oddly, it is usually older female guests that address the emails this way. Little do they know there are only woman, 8 in fact, on the other end, no men, sending out electronic pearls of wisdom.
Maybe it’s habit, maybe it’s an oversight, maybe they assume only men do my job. Or maybe I missed the lesson where addressing emails to “Sir” was something respectful, like signing Sincerely. Maybe years ago it was…
But today, when I see “sir,” it makes me want to leave my name on the email so they know a woman responded. Not so much to say “you’re wrong!” but more to show these women a woman does do this job - not that it’s anything spectacular, and that’s the whole point.