Hi, I'm Maitlynn and I have irrational anxiety about how I sign off at the end of an email.

I went to college, I have a degree, I have a job in the career I went to school for yet every time I go to end an email I sit for a few minutes before hitting "send" pondering the most appropriate way to finish it.

There's a simple "Thanks, [your signature]" but that always seems so short and a bit informal; however, on the flip side, "warmest regards" is just awkward.

I'm a peppy, upbeat person so I want my email communications to reflect that...even if that means also being self-conscious about how many exclamation points I use.

I know, I know, these are probably silly things to be anxious over but when you are a millennial desperate to be taken seriously, these are the things we worry about. Much like if our boss sends us an email with a little less "pep" or "pizazz" than normal or just a simple "do you have time to chat?", we automatically assume we are getting fired.

You would think they would teach us these things in college but NO, because about 90% of my professors told us to just address them on a first-name basis and one even told us we could address him as "Broseph".

Well, Zippia broke down different "categories" of communication styles you may be using emails for from personal to professional use (and a few others in-between).

Here are the top six they say are best to use in professional settings and what I think about them (with rankings out of 10):

  1. "Hope to hear from you" - Good for coworkers you are not on a very personal level with or someone you are reaching out to with questions. I would worry it made me sound "pushy" - 8/10
  2. "Great working with you" - Great for showing appreciation, sincere, though I would worry it could be read sarcastically - 8/10
  3. "Keep up the great work" - Really only used in supervisor-to-employee communications but would/do LOVE to receive this - 10/10
  4. "Looking forward to it" - Preferably adapt to "looking forward to working with you further" but the sentiment remains. Easy-peasy - 9/10
  5. "Talk Soon" - Nope, don't like this one. Too short, not very friendly, not personable - 2/10
  6. "Looking forward to hearing from you" - The perfect mix of a couple on this list. Formal while also being personable. Comfortable - 10/10

All in all, I know email communications are not supposed to be all cheery and bubbly like text messages between friends; however, I feel like part of professionalism is being personable as well and that is where email anxiety comes from.

What other weird "work things" make you irrationally anxious?

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