What your email signature says about you — and what to use instead
Signatures are often the part of an email that people spend the least amount of time on — but how you sign off could say more about you than you think.
Writer and comic Kelly Landry began to research email sign-offs while writing for a comedy show, and the 37-year-old told South West News Service that some email signatures can portray more confidence than others — and some simply come off as pretentious and rude.
“A lot of agents and managers or my friends who are execs use ‘best’ — it is the most boss lady, boss man sign-off,” Landry, from Los Angeles, California, explained. “If you want to come across as confident or you are unsure how to end an email, ‘best’ is the one to go for.”
However, Landry prefers “all the best” since it comes off “warmer” than “best” and is “very British.”
“Just ‘best’ feels too abrupt, maybe even rude. You have a deep fear of being misunderstood and so you often over-clarify. But you also don’t want to seem desperate and typing ‘wishing you all the best’ felt way too thirsty,” she explained.
The common sign-off of “thanks!” is more informal and “puts you in a weaker position,” Landry said. “It comes across a touch thirsty.”
People who use their initial followed by an “x” — Lx, for example — give off an element of mystery and assert their position of power.
“They like to keep people guessing — they were potentially into spy movies as a child,” Landry claimed. “Or [it] is a little bit romantic; I feel like romantic people will just do the initial. It is a little bit of a fantasy — it is giving me powerful, creative vibes.”
Landry finds the sign-offs “very truly yours” and “respectfully” to be “bizarre.”
“I also think it is so funny as it will be some of the toughest people. They will redline your contract, say you can’t have this and that, and end with ‘very truly yours’ — it comes across as a ‘f–k you,'” she explained.
“I also think ‘respectfully’ is something a lot of military people use. Just because they say it, doesn’t mean they truly mean it, and everyone knows they don’t mean it.”
Even though Landry has studied up on the significance of an email signature, she doesn’t have a go-to for herself and will switch it up based on who she’s emailing.
“As a creative and not someone who is sat in an office, I don’t really do a set signature. I noticed that depending on who I was writing to or how I wanted to come across, I would sign my email differently,” she shared. “I found it interesting: if I want to send a business email and want to come across professional, it can be ‘yours sincerely’ or ‘the best.'”
She continued, “Sometimes I will do just a dash — that to me feels a little chaotic, like I couldn’t work out how to end it and I have already read the email 17 times, and I have given up at the end and just put a dash.”
But one of her favorite signatures is “with gratitude.”
“I love ‘with gratitude’ — they are my hippies. They are burning sage, they might go on an ayahuasca retreat next year,” she explained. “Not to be confused with ‘have blessing’ or have ‘a blessed day,’ which is very mainstream religious.”
Turns out, Landry was onto something.
Michael McCluskey, an associate teaching professor of English at Northeastern University, instructs his business classes the importance of spending time on an email signature.
“You’re telling a story, whether or not you know it,” McCluskey told Northeastern Global News. “However you speak, however you write … it’s not just about the information you’re putting together. It’s about how you put it together.”
Ted Moss, a teaching professor of English at Northeastern, added that some people like to use their email signature as “some sort of mini resume or LinkedIn language,” including links to their work or social media.
For Moss’ students, a signature is yet another way to “pitch themselves to potential employers and highlight their accomplishments.”
“In some ways, it does define you,” Moss shared.
McCluskey said that there aren’t many “don’ts” for email signatures, but there is just one: “The red flag is not having one.”
So what does your email sign-off say about you? Here’s what Landry had to offer:
- Best = Confident
- Thanks! = Thirsty
- Many Thanks = Pretentious
- All the best = Conscious of how they are perceived
- Cheers = Adventurous
- Initial followed by X = Powerful
- Very truly yours = Tough
- Ending with an emoji – Busy
- Sincerely = Imposter
- XX = Super important
