Dear Bob ... Here is a question: What do you think of when people use initials instead of either the first name or last name in a communication? For example, when I get e-mails from my boss, she refers to me like this "EC I need you to do this, and JM I need you do that" If you are writing it anyway (typing really) Earl and Jim aren't that difficult. Also, since my boss does that, people in our company mimic her Dear Bob …Here is a question: What do you think of when people use initials instead of either the first name or last name in a communication?For example, when I get e-mails from my boss, she refers to me like this “EC I need you to do this, and JM I need you do that” If you are writing it anyway (typing really) Earl and Jim aren’t that difficult. Also, since my boss does that, people in our company mimic her, because “It makes it so simple,” is how one person put it.I know that for me, this difficulty with short cuts has bothered me for a long time. To give an example, when I managed a restaurant — a counter in a mall really — to make it as simple as possible, we would group people and herd them like cattle, and we had a lunch time turn around from order to delivery of about 4 minutes. Anyway, how it worked was you had one person, the barker who would take the entree orders from people, then after the entrees were started would call them back in the order they were taken and get their drinks and other crap.The barker would then say what they needed like 3 medium cokes, 2 pieces of pies. During this period I had one barker who in attempt to make it quicker would say 3 meds. I always thought it was stupid (going from question to therapist and needing reaffirmation of myself esteem here ) that people took these types of short cuts, when there was better ways, in my mind, like pick up three cups and hand them to the person, and say coke, coke, root beer — than 3 meds. What do you think, am I being overly critical?– UnabbreviatedUB … Maybe it’s because I have teenagers, who communicate in instant messaging code (and that’s when we’re face-to-face!). But I have to tell you – I rank this right up there with dress codes as something to not spend a whole lot of time worrying about.As a matter of personal style, I’m with you – it’s “Washington, DC” and not “the District”; it’s the suburbs, not the “burbs”; and most important of all it’s “application” and not “app.” But then, when I was young enough to be hip I wasn’t, and was always a few months behind on slang, so I learned to not use it in my formative years, mostly to avoid ridicule.Bad word choice and grammar are another matter. I adhere to the doctrine that sloppy and vague language reflect sloppy and vague thinking. That’s worth your time and concern, because sloppy and vague thinking generally turn into dopey decisions and inept action. When it’s a colleague of yours, that matters to the business, which in turn matters to your budget, bonus, and continued employment. IMHO, of course.– RL Technology Industry