It’s time for another round of Keri’s Burning Questions….
This one gets all corporate about things, y’all.
Here it goes:
Using “Ladies” as a greeting/salutation in business correspondence – yay, or nay?
Examples (as a bonus, I’ve included as much business jargon as I can cram into each example, because funny):
1.
Ladies,
I just wanted to touch base about how we are leveraging our latest deep dive before I run it up the flagpole.
Regards,
Keri
2.
Hi Ladies,
Ready to reach out to the client with the new verbiage since I’ll be out-of-pocket for the rest of the week. Let’s talk turkey about the action items we outlined during the cross-fuctional call last week.
Best,
Keri
So- is “ladies” acceptable here, or not?
You guide me.
Shout it out in the comments below!
Reluctantly Suburban 
So interesting! In the past I have used “ladies” a ton cause I like it, but it’s (very) recently been brought to my attention that a lot of women don’t like the term. As a result, I’ve stopped using it in most of my business communications. I’ve also stopped using “guys” as a unisex term.
I kind of think “ladies” is archaic. My biggest problem with the word, though, is that some men use it as a term of derision for other men they deem to be “pansies,” or as a smart-ass way to be “one of the boys.” That’s so sexist and repugnant I think it’s ruined the word for me.
And OMG what is that “out of pocket” thing? One of my email contacts got back to me this week with an out of office reply that said he was “out of pocket” and I wanted to hurl.
And while I’m at it, if I never ever again in my life have to hear about how “jazzed” someone is about something I will die a happy woman. Sheesh.
JAZZED!!! Oh my goodness that’s a whopper! Thanks for chiming in on my Burning Question! (I am withholding my opinion for a bit so I can hear what all my smartie-pants readers think.)
The term “ladies” is still a good thing in my circles. I have recently written emails to “ladies” but after reading your blog I’m now wondering if I should. I often write “Hi all” just to keep it casual but will be interested what others say.
If we are talking business emails, I use it but reluctantly. I just haven’t found a better word/phrase that sounds and feels right to me! If we are talking personal , I say Kiddos, girlies, chicky poos, friends, etc