Think about how many emails you receive each day. Then how many of those include the phrase “please find attached” in the body. One X user has made a plea to retire the phrase, a relic leftover from a time when business communication relied on typewritten letters posted in envelopes, which actually included attached documents to be found.
The post quickly went viral, gaining nearly 15 million views since it was posted earlier this week.
While the user doesn’t elaborate why exactly they personally take issue with the phrase, or what to say instead, the post had the desired effect, with many weighing in with their own takes on modern email etiquette.
Some agreed that the phrase is stuffy and outdated.
“‘Please find attached’ adds zero information, sounds robotic, and does not respect the reader’s time,” one wrote. “‘Here’s the file’ does the job better than a sentence that adds zero information,” another added.
It’s true, these days email attachments are instantly accessible, clearly marked, and don’t require a physical search. While young workers have no qualms including memes, emojis, slang, and abbreviations in their emails, and despite nearly one in four employees now using AI to help write emails, “please find attached” has somehow slipped through the net.
Others staunchly defended the use of the tried-and-tested phrase.
“But if I don’t type those magic words, how will Outlook know to warn me when I inevitably forget to actually attach the file?” one wrote.
“Baby, no,” another added. “The people are stupid.”
Many of us are trapped in a terminal cycle of “reaching out” and “circling back”, with dozens of corporate buzzwords and phrases that some argue make smart people sound less intelligent. But if you’re in the market for some more creative ways to signal there’s a PDF attached that needs attention, the replies to the X post is a goldmine.
“Behold, the attachment,” one X user suggested as an alternative.
For a sinister edge, “‘There are attachments in this email with us right now’,” another put forth, or “‘Watch out for the attachment below’.”
Feeling pumped about the PDF attached? “Get a load of this MF attachment,” is another option.
Or alternatively, feeling deflated? “Find attached, if you even care” works here.
And if you’d rather the receiver doesn’t open the attachment, you could simply put: “‘Please don’t find attached’,” one wrote. “‘It’ll only be more work for us both’.”