Wait a sec -- we're talking about someone's formal business email signature block, not just casual use of their name. On my letterhead and in the business signature block, it has my middle initial, but I absolutely would not expect other people to actually address me that way and I manually sign my emails with my first name only. Within my office, going all the way up to the senior execs, and with clients and opposing counsel, we call each other by first name alone. I think it's quite common in professional settings for people to address each other by first names, while keeping the more formal name for envelopes, business cards, on court documents, etc.
I know - which is why it's amusing to see people signature blocks on even informal intranet emails. A tiny message that says 'Ok, Canaduh.' followed by three lines of self aggrandisement. It sure does look threatening on a legal letterhead and quite grown up on a business card, but it's still hard not to look at 'J. John Smith' and think of 'C. Thomas Flood' - whose 'C' stood for nothing, but he felt made him seem more legitimate as a writer.
I've never been in a position where reading the signature block was a valid use of my time, since the email or envelope usually tells me where or whom something originated from, so it's rare enough for me to bother - but I find it hard to take someone serious when the end of their missive makes me snicker a bit.
Regards,
My signature block autopopulates on al emails I originate. I use a standard template provided by the company. Is it needless? I dunno, I guess maybe, but who cares? I never ever thought there was anything pretentious about using a formal name for formal communication.
Exactly. This is just the industry/professional norm and our employer's expectation. If someone wants to laugh at the culture and not be a part of it, that's cool; I don't really care.
Ditto. It's expected of us to fill out a signature block with minimally our name, company, address, main line phone number, and email. I threw in my direct line for good measure. I'm not sure if there's even a way to not have the sig block come up when you're emailing someone internally (unless you're manually deleting it, which just seems more work than it's worth). I know there's an option to have it turn off if you're replying to an email, but I've spent enough time digging around through email chains looking for contact information to realize it's not worth it.
Internally we use initials quite often. The general rule of thumb is, if you're the first the unique set of initials, you get to use just the two. If there's someone already in the company with your initials, you're stuck adding in your middle initial. I'm the second one with my initials, so my middle was thrown in my signature block so coworkers would know it.
If you're outside this system and want something to laugh at, I guess go ahead. But there are a lot worse/better things to laugh at than using initials.
