Email kisses are big office bugbear

Kisses on emails to business contacts are Britain's biggest office bugbear, according to a new survey.

Two-thirds (66 per cent) of 1,000 people questioned found kisses on work emails annoying while half objected to being called honey or dear in business emails (54 per cent) and complained about abbreviations like OMG (50 per cent).

More than four out of 10 (44 per cent) felt smiley faces on work emails were inappropriate while almost three out of 10 (28 per cent) objected to cheesy greetings like "happy Friday" or questions about their weekend plans (17 per cent).

The survey, for office products firm Staples, also found more than half of those questioned (58 per cent) were irritated when people did not leave an out of office message when they went on holiday.

Even when people did leave a message, it could cause annoyance with 65 per cent of people saying spelling or grammatical errors made them think the person was shoddy while 46 per cent were irritated by out of office messages which they considered abrupt.

:: 1,000 people were questioned last month by OnePoll.

PA