The idea that wouldn’t leave me alone
Okay, this “thank you letter” thing just kept popping up everywhere. Saw it mentioned after someone helped me with a project last Tuesday, stumbled over a forum thread yesterday – seemed like a sign. Figured why not try it with BF Best Times? Honestly felt kinda awkward at first, like writing a love letter to a toaster. But decided to stop thinking so hard and just do it.
Scrapping the fancy stuff
Grabbed my laptop, opened a doc, and stared at a blinking cursor for a solid five minutes. Felt ridiculous. So I scrapped all the corporate speak nonsense people push. Forget “Esteemed Colleagues” or “We are cognizant of our synergistic partnership.” Tried writing the first line like I’d say it if I bumped into their boss getting coffee: “Seriously, that last project thing you guys fixed for us?” Way better. Stuck with that.
Here’s the garbage I didn’t write:
- “We at [Company Name] express profound appreciation…” – Nah.
- “Per our recent collaborative initiative…” – Vomit.
- “On the topic of exceeding operational parameters…” – What?
Wrote three things instead:
- The specific feature they fixed that had been driving me nuts for weeks.
- Exactly how much time it saved my team the following Monday (like, two hours saved dealing with crashes).
- Just straight up said “Thanks for not making me wanna scream that day.” Truth feels better.
Hitting “Send” before I chicken out
Double-checked the email address – seriously, imagine screwing that up. Almost added a “PS. Sorry this is weird!” but deleted it. Made myself press send without overthinking it again. Took about ten minutes total, coffee got cold.
The surprisingly-not-awful reply
Got an email back the next afternoon from one of their senior engineers, not even the person I emailed. Said they printed my dumb little email and pinned it up in their team space! Apparently, developers mostly get yelled at via tickets. My rambling two-minute note about saving me two hours on Monday made them feel useful? Who knew. Still feel kinda stupid typing “Your team kicks ass” in a professional email, but apparently people like real words.
