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I didn't get the memo saying sure is not a good word. To me that is a very positive way to answer.
I ran into a problem with fine. I thought that was a good word but apparently now fine means there is a problem.
Also engaged is bad now I guess. A co-worker was very left handed with her new engagement ring and someone said "Oh, you got engaged" and she snarled that she didn't like the word engaged.
I didn't get the memo saying sure is not a good word. To me that is a very positive way to answer.
There are plenty of words which are not good words to use.
You seriously want someone to spend time sending you a memo of EACH AND EVERY WORD, and when it is acceptable?
Quote:
I ran into a problem with fine. I thought that was a good word but apparently now fine means there is a problem.
Also engaged is bad now I guess. A co-worker was very left handed with her new engagement ring and someone said "Oh, you got engaged" and she snarled that she didn't like the word engaged.
The OP has an issue with her boss, not a co-worker
As long as this looks like it could go on for a while, would someone in the "'Sure' is inappropriate" school please advise when, where and how it became so? I find no dictionary that relegates it to slang or colloquial usage, so what's the problem?
(Simply stating that the boss doesn't like it is non-responsive.)
The responses have been interesting...I posted earlier -
Serious situations call for precise words so a response of "yes" is definitive whereas "sure" is not. An employee who is not precise with serious matters can appear uncaring.
There are plenty of words which are not good words to use.
You seriously want someone to spend time sending you a memo of EACH AND EVERY WORD, and when it is acceptable?
Absolutely. Whenever someone says "I didn't get the memo",
they're not using a figure of speech or anything like that.
They really are expecting a literal memo.
Quote:
The OP has an issue with her boss, not a co-worker
She wasn't claiming otherwise, but sharing a similar situation involving
what was thought to be a harmless word ("engaged") that turned out
to be an affront to someone, like "sure" was to the OP's boss.
The responses have been interesting...I posted earlier -
Serious situations call for precise words so a response of "yes" is definitive whereas "sure" is not. An employee who is not precise with serious matters can appear uncaring.
And in my book, "sure" is more positive than simply saying "yes," but the OP's boss didn't simply say it was not definitive enough, she said it sounds like "I don't give a crap." Where the hell did that come from?
And in my book, "sure" is more positive than simply saying "yes," but the OP's boss didn't simply say it was not definitive enough, she said it sounds like "I don't give a crap." Where the hell did that come from?
I answered that, several times. Is my explanation not even possible in your mind?
I answered that, several times. Is my explanation not even possible in your mind?
Anything is possible here so your guess is as good as mine but since the boss did not ask a question with any specificity it would be odd for the OP to respond with any. What's also odd is that the text came about four hours after both parties were presumably face to face in the office and just about eleven hours (most spent in sleep) before they would again be in the office - so why ask on a text instead of just discussing office arrangements in the office?
I'm under the impression the boss has a different definition in her mind of the word "sure" and I wonder where that came from, whether geographical, generational or other. I don't believe the bosses response was to the brevity but rather the specific word.
I didn't get the memo saying sure is not a good word. To me that is a very positive way to answer.
I ran into a problem with fine. I thought that was a good word but apparently now fine means there is a problem.
Also engaged is bad now I guess. A co-worker was very left handed with her new engagement ring and someone said "Oh, you got engaged" and she snarled that she didn't like the word engaged.
IDK about engaged, that one just sounds like someone's preference, but I can certainly see "fine" as coming off sarcastically. I immediately picture a teenager or angry husband or wife sighing, exhaling & saying "Fine!", when things are anything but. I don't think I'd use fine in a text even casually to a friend, too much chance of misinterpretation, with the exception of a "how are you today"? text, "fine".
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That's what I keep thinking when people don't seem to understand how "sure" can be seen as a negative word. 
