Is it the whole texting thing, then? MSE (Must shorten everything)? I just saw a message where the sender wishes the receiver an “HBD.” [massive eyeroll ouch] I mean, how little can someone mean to you if you can’t even write out a whole two words to wish someone well on their birthday?
I and almost everyone I have ever worked with since the 90s has closed their emails with Best (American, east coast). It is beyond common in my industry, it is the absolute norm.
It’s easy to judge someone as not taking the time to show they care, but try to look at it from your average prof’s perspective. I’m guessing your average professional gets between 50-100 e-mails a day, and many are expected to respond immediately in addition to doing the rest of their work duties. No reason to take it personally if they use a curt sign-off line – your e-mail is most likely just something they need to cross off the ‘‘to do’’ list.
I am a stunted person, so to use anything other than a stunted closing would be dishonest.
In a perfect world I’d use “Yours &c”, but people tend to get confused by that.
I use it for none of the reasons listed above - instead I mean for it to plant a positive seed of association in the readers mind. Whatever is “best” to him or her, I don’t care, but I like that they think of that at the same time they see my name next.
It is definitely not shorthand for “Best regards” in my case, although I will use that on rare occasion when that is what I mean to say.
Even if the person isn’t hurried, an e-mail simply doesn’t follow full letter etiquette, except for (say) a first e-mail to someone you don’t know. As the exchange goes on, it gets closer and closer to a conversation/exchange of text messages. As that progression continues, the complimentary close shrivels until finally it disappears altogether.
It would just be strange to trade e-mails ending each one with “Yours sincerely,” as you do in an exchange of letters.
They could make a signature line that is as long or as short as they want, and then append it automatically to each email. This would add zero seconds to each email, unless you count the initial time of crafting the signature file.
Personally, I usually just use a dash right before my name. It’s quick, easy, can’t be taken the wrong way, and it gets the job done.
–Chronos
I use it occasionally. I struggle with how to sign-off business emails. Emails are so much less formal than a letter and yet… there still needs to be some formality in business chat. So, depending on my relationship to the reader, I will use a sliding scale of formality:
Kind Regards (most formal)
Best Regards
Best
Thanks
Cheers (least formal)
I’m British, if that’s relevant.
Another Brit here - most of my customer emails end “with best regards”, or “many thanks” if I’m requesting information.
I’ve found a lot of people - colleagues and customers - now include “Regards, Last Name” as part of their email signature, so they hammer out and email and fire it away with a standard ending.