Do you have to restrain yourself from inserting personal quips into business emails?

No, I don’t. It is too easy for things to be misunderstood in business correspondence. or for people to not take me seriously in a business setting.

I know @marinelife. That’s why I don’t do it. But does it ever cross your mind?

I am definitely tempted to make a witty remark or emphasize a pun when I feel one coming on. However I have never given into the temptation. Recent e.g.

Dear…

Yes I have received your file, it’s beautiful.

regards
...

LOL!
Personally, I LOVE receiving emails from a stranger with a personal touch!

I recently sent an email to the company we buy our assay supplies from because I got some readings that didn’t make sense. I sent them an excel file with the weird readings, forgetting that I had titled it pretty unprofessionally. This is part of their email back to me:

I shared your ‘insane progesterone readings’ excel file with Dr. G—- and he agrees that these seem to be insane readings.

Oops.

@nikipedia ROFL!!

I’m pretty good with sticking to the biz. at hand, in some instances, depending if I have somewhat of a personal relationship with the other party.

But..I am the verbose type, I end up chatting with all kinds of biz. calls, AT&T people, wrong umbers, service calls. I actually had an AT&T operator ask for my email so we could keep chatting awhile back. I had a tree service guy ask me for a date over the phone, I have a friend I met through a wrong number, and a big party I hostessed two summers ago I ended up inviting someone through another wrong number. haha

I’m really not into pretense at all, and think ‘professionalism’ can be taken to the extreme. I want to relate to the person not the role. ;-)

I try, but sometimes fail, to restrain myself. How hard I try to hold back my quips depends on how well I know the person I’m emailing. :)

I haven’t been often tempted to be silly. Although sometimes I am tempted to tell shaggy dog stories or make personal comments. But I’ve been able to resist most of that so far. Once I made a wry comment to an innkeeper I wanted a room with, and she said that made her reply to my request (which was somewhat unorthodox).