Email Salutations
I have a pet peeve about this, but am pretty sure I'm in a tiny minority and thought I'd check other people's opinions. Pretend you're emailing three people called Jane.
Poll Email Salutations
I don't like receiving email addressed "Hi Zebra" from anyone who wouldn't say "Hi Zebra" in a casual manner if I was to walk into the room they were in. It's just too informal and chirpy! I much prefer emails to begin just with a name, alone and unadorned with anything except a comma after it. ("Dear ..." also sounds polite to me, but I don't think it's in common use for email.)
To me, "Hi" is never appropriate to use to someone you haven't met, either in person or virtually, or to someone who significantly outranks you in your work hierarchy. I wouldn't ever use "Hi < name >" in an email to my boss, despite the fact that I would of course say "hi" to him in person, and we have a bantering kind of relationship in which we frequently mock each other about various things. I feel it's too informal to be polite, though he uses "Hi Zebra" to me (and probably thinks I'm a bit stingy with my salutations).
I use "Hello" on its own if I don't know someone's name, and no salutation if it's the middle of a conversation with someone I know very well and the other person has initiated the dropping of salutations! 95% of the time, I just use the person's name. Presumably this sounds a bit abrupt to people who habitually use "Hi", and perhaps too formal for people who tend not to use salutations at all.
I read "Hi, Zebra," as more conversational and a bit of a different animal to "Hi Zebra".
One nice thing about LJ comments is that they avoid this issue (and the issue of pseudonyms, too - I hate pseudonyms in email!).
I've just done a search on email etiquette and opinions on this seem to vary enormously. Reading the wildly conflicting advice out there may have convinced me that this topic isn't worth having a pet peeve about!
Poll Email Salutations
I don't like receiving email addressed "Hi Zebra" from anyone who wouldn't say "Hi Zebra" in a casual manner if I was to walk into the room they were in. It's just too informal and chirpy! I much prefer emails to begin just with a name, alone and unadorned with anything except a comma after it. ("Dear ..." also sounds polite to me, but I don't think it's in common use for email.)
To me, "Hi" is never appropriate to use to someone you haven't met, either in person or virtually, or to someone who significantly outranks you in your work hierarchy. I wouldn't ever use "Hi < name >" in an email to my boss, despite the fact that I would of course say "hi" to him in person, and we have a bantering kind of relationship in which we frequently mock each other about various things. I feel it's too informal to be polite, though he uses "Hi Zebra" to me (and probably thinks I'm a bit stingy with my salutations).
I use "Hello" on its own if I don't know someone's name, and no salutation if it's the middle of a conversation with someone I know very well and the other person has initiated the dropping of salutations! 95% of the time, I just use the person's name. Presumably this sounds a bit abrupt to people who habitually use "Hi", and perhaps too formal for people who tend not to use salutations at all.
I read "Hi, Zebra," as more conversational and a bit of a different animal to "Hi Zebra".
One nice thing about LJ comments is that they avoid this issue (and the issue of pseudonyms, too - I hate pseudonyms in email!).
I've just done a search on email etiquette and opinions on this seem to vary enormously. Reading the wildly conflicting advice out there may have convinced me that this topic isn't worth having a pet peeve about!