I received an email recently where the sender signed off with the line at the title of this post.

I’ve no preference for the wording – best, regards, etc – but the sign off had been included in the person’s autosignature; kindest regards was in a different font to the rest of the email and the same as the text in their contact info.

Did the sender really send their kindest regards? Were they really concerned over sending a message with kindness?

We can automate to such an extent we sometimes need to stop to make sure we’re not de-personalising personal interaction.