This should probably go in MPSIMS, but I am sure there is a factual answer even if I am embarassed to admit I can’t figure it out.
When closing an email, I have a few folk that use v/r instead of something like “Thanks.” I think the “r” stands for regards, but can’t come up with the meaning of the “v” and yet I am sure I’ve seen this before.
Thanks for your kind consideration!
v/r,
LiveOnAPlane
Ignorance fought.
Many thanks.
It comes from military usage. Very respectfully is used as a closing in a letter to a superior, while respectfully is used as a closing to subordinates.
Ah, that is interesting, Mr. Moto. Thank you for the extra info…kinda appropos, since 99% of the folk I work with here are either military or ex-military.
…Which, come to think of it, probably explains why I am running across it here!
[moan]
Massive gripe of mine in the workplace. If you don’t mean something enough to say it properly - don’t say it.
In my opinion it’s more disrespectful to abbreviate a sentiment you don’t mean than to entirely disclude it. Lots of people at work have ‘Kind Regards’ in their e-mail signature, which I can kind of get behind when sending formal e-mails to people that matter - but if you really wanted to say it, it’d be in the message body. But putting ‘KR’ at the end of each message when we’re playing e-mail tennis will make me think less of you.
[/moan]
Can’t agree. Convention is what it is. I’m not always “Sincere”, you know.
As for the abbreviations, they came in very handy when using teletype machines - which were only recently phased out by the Navy. Other forms of communication still used (semaphore, signal lamp, signal flags) make abbreviations mighty convenient.
You might think they would be abandoned in an office setting, but the opposite seems to be happening as more businesses utilize instant message and social media tools.
The “V/R” trend, IME, has really taken off in the last 3-4 years. When I joined the military 8 years ago, there wasn’t really much in the way of an accepted signature for emails. People were still signing whatever they wanted, with some people going all AOL and putting fancy fonts and colors.
Eventually guidance came out that all emails should have that long disclosure that nobody reads, and that our official military signature should be in the form of:
//SIGNED//
SNUFFY A SMITH, MSgt, USAF
NCOIC, JANITORIAL SERVICES
DSN 555-0199
This was all well and good, in that it made every email 10 times as long as before but gave us all something “official” to slap on the bottom. But having every email end in this super formal signature was rough. Like, “See you at the game on Saturday. Sincerely, <Insert robot voice>”. So people started coming up with their own thing.
“v/r” works out well because it’s a way to “casually” sign the email before the super official garbage starts. Doing something like:
v/r,
Snuffy
Is the next step up. If you’re an O-6 or above, you can do the whole “v/r, sas” thing with your initials, and that lets everyone know that you’re one of the peeps.
But I never liked the v/r, because if you put it in your signature block, then every message is apparently very respectful. And if I assume that you meant to be very respectful, then I can just assume it. I took to omitting it and just throwing in a “-Snuffy” at the end of my message before the official signature, unless I was trying to be formal, in which case I just let the official signature stand on its own.
So if I have to e-mail Admiral Mike Mullen, I shouldn’t end my e-mail with “kthxbye”?
You’re a civilian, right? If so you can say what you want. So can I, in fact - my obligations to the government ended some years back.
Standard business salutations and closings would likely be fine in correspondence with Admiral Mullen.
I can sort understand your dislike of abbreviations but are you saying you’re opposed to any complimentary close in e-mail? It’s certainly not necessary in a quick message, especially a personal message about tennis, but I don’t see why it’s objectionable.
I have to agree, if it’s abbreviate it doesn’t seem ‘respectful’ at all, certainly not ‘very’. But leave it to the army to formalize an honorific till it contains no, well, honour.
Not objected to a complimentary close - if I’m sending a quick informal message to the boss, I’m smart enough to put ‘Regards’ or ‘Best Regards’ at the bottom.
But one of my pals asking me if we want to go for lunch or thanking me for coffee would be better suited to ‘Cheers’ or ‘See you later’ as a close - putting an over-formal convention seems lazy and slightly offensive to me.
It’s not just this, though, it’s the thing of false sentiment for the sake of keeping up appearances. At the train station yesterday, every few minutes the recorded announcer would come on and say 'National rail is very sorry for the delay…, we apologise for '. If you don’t feel bad enough to get a real person to send the message, then don’t over-do the apologies! Kind of a parallel to the e-mail signature.
“Very Respectfully”
We ask that old threads only be revived in order to provide new information, Given that this question was answered in the second post four years ago, I’m going to close this.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator