Is it professional to address 2 people as "both" in an e-mail?

Question

I have a co-worker in a finance dept who continously addresses my boss and I as "both" in her e-mails. It can get annoying, but then again her whole message has typos and very bad grammer. She is from Vietnam so I don't know if that may have something to do it. But I wanted to know if I should address her and let her know I would prefer her to use my name and my boss' name instead of "both".

Answer 1

It depends on the situation. If I am sending an e-mail to someone but I want to keep another person in the loop, I will "cc" that person. But on several occasions I have sent an e-mail to two people and I will address them separately as follows:

Jim:

Per our discussion, ___________.

Lisa:

Please proceed with ___________.

The fact that this lady is from Vietnam has nothing to do with her addressing multiple people in an e-mail. However, if she has spelling and grammatical errors then it is probably is because English is not her first language. You don't want to offend the lady, so try to be cordial when you approach her. Either that, or talk to your supervisor about it.

Answer 2

As she is Vietnamese, obviously English is her second language. Provided you are kind and tactful, she may actually appreciate being shown a more appropriate way to address you and your boss.
Remember, that frequently interpretation from one language to another may not always have an exact equal. Could be that "both" would be acceptable in Vienamese.

Answer 3

I would explain to her that addressing the e-mail to 'both' is confusing, not standard business practice and you 'both' would prefer to be addressed by your individual names - NICELY!

I can't guess why she is doing this other than perhaps: trying to be more efficient, language barrier, used to do this and was never corrected, acceptable in her last job.

Answer 4

i became sitting there speaking to my female pal, in the past we've been relationship, with regard to the internet in a random communication. We have been speaking approximately like the yahoo video games or something. in any case it merely led to speaking approximately IM and that i asked for her demonstrate screen call. So i could advise next time you speaking along with her improve something with regard to the internet that interest the two certainly one of you publications to construct a elementary floor, that's an important component to persuasion. Then merely enable it lead into inquiring for her handle. It became undemanding for me, optimistically it works for you...solid success!!

Answer 5

Most likely she does not understand protocol. You can very nicely let her know the correct salutations.