A Quick Diversion

[night_soil]

My supervisor is taking a 4-day weekend, so today I am the only one in the office. Seeing that I very rarely have this opportunity, I figured I may as well take this time to make a brief foray into the world of work-time internet procrastination

Comments

[reallydeadkitty]

I hate doing Thank Yous. I'm terrible at it, they sound awkward, they look awkward (will they realize I misspelled that and then just wrote over it to cover it up? will they think I'm a bad person? WILL THEY???), and so I don't send them for weeks and weeks and then suddenly it's way too late for it to be an appropriate time frame and so now it's out of place and late and I am a bad person for that and ohgodohgodohgod.

That said, it's fine to use Ms unless you have a direct personal relationship with somebody and know for sure that it's Mrs. And the picture facing thing? I just go with the exciting side facing the reader when they open the card. I think it's weirder to open thing and then have to turn them over, unless the back is really pretty too.

[kslays]

I feel the same way! I bought a card for my dentist who was incredibly careful and delicate with my teeth, but never even sent it because I didn't know what to write and so never got around to it. I always worry about which way to insert the card/letter (there apparently IS a right and wrong way, even though many open them from the side.
I used to not leave messages on answering machines for the same reason-what is the proper order and etiquette? Do you leave the name and number first? Do you leave your number for friends? Will they be offended if they already have it? Do you leave it twice and say it slowly? What if someone plays it over again and makes fun of you to their housemates?
Trivial details cause us no end of worries.

[kellbot]

If you're not sure, use "Ms." Technically, by whatever random powers of stupid etiquitte rules, Mrs should never preceed a feminine first name, because it denotes "the wife of" such as "Mrs. Richard Smith." So the only time you would use "Mrs Sandra Dee" would be if Sandra Dee was a lesbian and you were talking about her wife. In business communication, women are generally Ms, since their marital status has little to do with their profession.

I always thought it was standard to place a card in an envelope so that the front is the first thing they see when they open it. But I don't know if that's "correct." But it makes more sense to me.