Observing Boundaries Between The Lines

[plumtreeblossom]

I'm sitting here thinking about when a reply in e-mail or voicemail is concluded with "Hope this helps."

What it usually really means is "This is absolutely all I'm going to do for you on this matter, do not ask anything additional of me regarding it, do not even CC me on your continued search for a solution because I have no further assistance to offer you."

EXAMPLE:

Q: "Hey, would you have a list of every Indian restaurant in the city, with addresses, phone numbers, and websites? I'm planning a tasting tour for some friends. I think there are like 40."

A: "I have the websites for 3, attached in a spreadsheet. Hope this helps."

Comments

[vanguardcdk.livejournal.com]

I use that phrase every now and then and with me it means:

"That's what I know, I'm not sure if it was really helpful or not. I'll be happily surprised if it was".

No negativity implied...

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I think I might be the one using it the way I describe above. At work, someone asked me something that required some exhaustive research (not the example above, but of similar magnitude). I did what research I reasonably could in the time available, and when I sent the resulting data with a "Hope this helps" at the end, what I really meant was "While I do genuinely hope that the answer I supplied helps, I do not wish to be further involved in the matter and am not volunteering to be so, and in fact would kindly appreciate being taken out of the loop."

[chienne-folle.livejournal.com]

Yep, this is what I mean by it.