Apparently, signing off with 'Best' makes you look like a total jackass. Here's why.

Hey, you. We see you over there, writing that big email, trying to figure out the right way to end it so you can most effectively convey the right balance between desperation and sociopathy to your coworkers.

What do you sign your emails off with to do that? 'Yours?' 'Cheers?' 'Xoxo?'

Here at Rooster, we prefer 'Forever watching you' or our personal favorite 'Who let the dogs out?' but as it turns out, there's an even worse email sign off than all of the above options put together: 'Best.'

Signing your emails with 'Best' is actually the worst, according to email etiquette consultant Judith Kallos (apparently that's a job). Although the sign-off has only gained popularity in recent years, it’s so ubiquitous these days that Judith told Bloomberg it’s become bland and uninspired. Essentially, 'Best' conveys the message to others that you are an insipid twat devoid of original thought.

… Yikes.

"Best is benign," Judith says. "It works when you apparently don’t know what else to use."

So why have people been using it so frequently? See, when email was first implemented in offices in the 90s, people tended to leave out greetings and sign-offs altogether in order to distance themselves from the barbaric practices of snail mail. Emails were like memos, and the world was right.

But as time went on, formalities started to seep back in to email lingo as people started to communicate predominately online. Today, there's a whole world of pain when it comes to email closings, and apparently, which one you use speaks volumes about you to the recipient of your internet correspondence.  

There’s the overly formal ‘kind regards’, aka ‘I have little to no regard for you’, or ‘warm regards’ which makes you seem uncomfortably eager to please. There's 'cheers,' which sounds passive aggressive or like you're drunk, 'yours,' which is unsettling and 'thanks,' which makes you seem like a thankless mid-level manage. Don't even get us started on 'peace' or 'kindly.'

None of these are right anymore apparently. According to Judith the Email Whisperer, we should be signing off with nothing instead. Nada. Zilch. Just blank, empty space where the memory of a formality once lived.

Liz Danzico, creative director of NPR (National Public Radio) agrees. She's of the mind that sign-offs just interrupt the flow and are no longer necessary.

"When you put the closing, it feels disingenuous or self-conscious each time," she said. "It’s not reflective of the normal way we have conversation." True. Can't argue with that.

So, next time you whip of a frenzy of 1's and 0's in your Gmail tab, go ahead and press 'send' without signing off. Take a moment to bask in your modernity and e-grace, then pat yourself on the back for a job well-done.

You deserve it.

Best,

Rooster.