When you are saying it in between other conversational space-fillers, I don’t actually believe you.
“I appreciate you.”
It seems grammatically incorrect, doesn’t it? Can you actually appreciate a person, rather than a person’s actions?
I’ve never heard that, but I know some people say ‘I appreciate that’, instead of ‘thank you for doing X’
Because when it’s said over and over to random people for no apparent reason, it should like a Stepford wife.
It’s office admin speak for “bless your heart.”
Urban Dictionary seems to have worked this one out.
See, if that was the context in which she says it, I’d be okay with that. At least it would be amusing. She also has the unfortunate habit of telling people she loves them in that same cloying lilting tone - like she’s Barney the purple f*cking dinosaur. Fortunately it’s to someone on the other end of the phone and with less frequency.
I know it’s attention mongering and it plays into my low tolerance for attention whores. I just need to find a new place to sit. Maybe on the roof.
<sigh>… Now Hilton Hotels appreciates my emails.
:smack: I give the fuck up.
In my mind, she hates you all with a vicious passion, and smiling sweetly while saying this is the only way that she can repress the killing rage.
Be nice to her and keep your distance. Just in case.
Presumably you don’t just wander around saying it like a parrot. Because I also say I appreciate people, but it’s after they do something for me, not just popping randomly into their offices, interrupting whatever they are doing, to deliver this syrupy sweet comment.
I seem to get a lot of mileage from “Burn in Hell!” when someone tells me to have a nice day or extends some other pleasantry to me. It’s clear they think I’m kidding and it’s just Inigo being hyperbolic. They are sometimes mistaken.
Expressing sincere gratitude is great. The people we’re complaining about are using it like companies that tell you how much they appreciate your call while they keep you on hold for two hours.
With a high-powered automatic rifle and plenty of ammunition? 
I appreciate you. No, really, I really do.
“Well, ya know what I’d really appreciate?” wicked grin
:dubious: … so wrong. 
If you want to put a stop to it, just respond with, “That’s great! What in particular do you appreciate about me or my work?”
I picked it up from a coworker, and I use it,* generally when speaking to students. I think that it’s nice and positive. It’s definitely a shortcut for “I appreciate the things that you do and/or the way that you do them.”
It’s not a big deal. All platitudes become unbearable given enough repetition. This one is harmless enough.
*or more accurately, “'preciate’chya.”
Wouldn’t work. I’m a snappy dresser and she’d have to go with that. Which means I’d have to thank her for noticing, and that would just encourage her further.
No. I think I’m going to have to go with the high powered rifle on the roof if I’m to put a stop to it. I’ll blame **Cat Whisperer ** for putting the idea in my head.
Admit it - it didn’t take much convincing. 
Before you do that, since you won’t be able to post afterwards…
Out of the blue, march up to her and tell her that you don’t appreciate her appreciating so many people and that you’d REALLY appreciate it if she’d appreciate a lot less or at least appreciate using a lower volume so that you no longer have to hear her appreciating so many idiots… oh, and F* off and die beyotch.
Then report back to us what her response is… include picture of her facial response or it didn’t happen.
Transplanted Yankee here, living in TN
That " 'preciate’cha!!" utterly grates on my nerves, even though I know it’s meant in a friendly, mostly sincere way. I mind it less from someone I’ve just actually done something for, but when every minor interaction receives it, it gets old fast.
This makes me thankful that my office mates are cats.
“I appreciate you” sounds so insincere, for some reason, compared to “thank you”. Maybe because when you thank someone you are taking an action to show appreciation. Whereas telling someone you appreciate them, particularly when it’s done frequently as the op’s coworker does, calls it’s validity into question. You can say “I appreciate you” as a lie, you can’t so much say “thank you” as a lie.