要"非常爱你的"上司

I've just received an email from my manager vaguely reprimanding me about something pretty trivial. The odd thing wasn't the message itself but the way he finished it, signing off with "Lots of love". Perhaps this was his way of trying to soften the message, but it has left me with two creeping doubts. Is it ever OK for a line manager to sign off messages to staff in this way? And if he insists on ending his emails like that, how am I meant to reply? I can't bring myself to write "Lots of love" back, but to write "Best" looks a bit chilly.
我刚刚收到了经理的一封电子邮件，他为了微不足道的事含糊其词地训斥了我一顿。邮件内容本身并不怪异，诡异的是他的落款"非常爱你的"(Lots of love)。可能他想通过这种方式淡化批评的语气，但却让我感到令人毛骨悚然，并且产生了两点疑惑。上司给下属发电子邮件如此落款是否合适？如果他一定要这么落款，我回信时又该如何落款？我没法在回信中也写"非常爱你的"，只写"祝好"(Best)又显得冷冰冰。

Media researcher, female, 33
媒体研究人员，女，33岁

Lucy's answer
露西的回答

The problem with "best" is not that it looks chilly. It's that it makes no sense. Best what? Best of luck? Best wishes? Best buy? Best man?
"祝好"的问题不在于看起来冷冰冰，而在于毫无意义。最好的什么？最好的运气？最好的祝福？最好的买卖？最好的男人？

Nor must you consider writing "Lots of love". To slavishly mirror the sign-off of the boss achieves one thing only: it makes you look weak.
你也不必考虑要不要写"非常爱你的"。依葫芦画瓢只能起到一个效果：让你看起来很软弱。

Instead, what you must do is perfectly easy – not sign off at all. This is always the best, quickest and safest way of ending emails to colleagues. If you insist, you can write your name at the bottom, but as everyone can see that it is from you, such elucidation isn't strictly necessary.
相反，你该做的事很简单——根本不用落款。这是给同事写电子邮件时最合适、最快捷和最安全的结尾。如果你坚持要落款，可以在末尾写上自己的名字；但既然大家都知道发信人是你，以姓名落款的意义也不太大。

As for whether it is ever acceptable for a boss to sign himself off with "Lots of love", the answer is that it might be. Email is a strange form – even though we all spend our lives sending and receiving emails, there is still no agreement on the rules of how to start or end them and all sorts of things are permissible, depending on the circumstances.
至于上司本人用"非常爱你的"落款是否合适，答案是这或许是合适的。电子邮件是一种奇怪的通信方式，尽管我们在生活中都要收发电子邮件，但关于电子邮件应该如何开头、结尾怎么写，我们并没有达成共识，所以，各种写法都是可以接受的，这要看实际情况而定。

If your boss signs himself off "lots of love" there are two possibilities. The first is that he was too quick to press send, and made a mistake. I've just sent a message to a reader who had taken issue with something I'd written and I carelessly signed it with three kisses. Fortunately, he ignored it: his subsequent reply ended with a more fitting "best wishes".
如果你的老板落款时用"非常爱你的",这里面存在着两种可能性。第一种是，他在匆忙中按下"发送"键，犯了一个错误。有位读者写信对我的文章提出了意见，我刚给他回信时一不小心用了三个"吻你"作为落款。好在他没当回事，他在回信中的落款是得体的"衷心的祝福(best wishes)"。

More likely, though, your boss's sign-off shows that he is trying to create an informal, we're-all-great-chums culture. This approach doesn't begin to work for me, but is perfectly fine if you like that sort of thing.
不过，更有可能的情况是，你老板的落款表明，他想要营造一种不那么正式、大家都是好朋友的氛围。我对这个不感冒，但如果你喜欢这种方式，那就挺好的。

However, I fear you may have a bigger problem than how to sign off your reply. In particular, I fear it may cause offence long before the end of it. You say your boss was reprimanding you over something "pretty trivial", but in my experience minor transgressions tend not to attract reprimanding emails at all. Most people don't like telling others off, and your boss – who wants to be seen as a lovable kinda guy – may like it less than most.
但是，我担心你还有一个比不知回信如何落款更严重的问题。尤其是，我担心这个问题在得到解决之前，你可能会得罪人。你提到，你老板在某件"微不足道的"事情上批评了你；但以我的经验来看，如果你只是犯了个小错误，对方不至于特意发邮件来责备你。大多数人都不喜欢斥责别人，你老板——他想被大家视为一个和蔼可亲的人——很可能比大多数人更不愿这么做。

I suspect that you have in fact made a major transgression. In which case you should stop dithering, get cracking at once, and start your reply with a big, fat apology.
我怀疑，你实际上犯了一个大错误。如果是这种情况，你最好别再犹豫，立马行动，回复邮件，诚恳地为自己的行为道歉。