Appreciation starts with small things.

Saying “thank you”, for example, is an underrated classic, even if it's just for a technical touch on a colleague's laptop.

There are completely different ways of expressing goodwill online: if you choose the correct spelling of the surname and the correct gender of the person addressed, for example.

Shouldn't be a problem, should it?

In fact, the personal address is something that Ms. M. has been worried about for a long time.

Kim Maurus

Volunteer.

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She especially writes her unloved middle name in the mail signature so that there is no uncertainty about her unisex first name. It doesn't help, she regularly becomes "Mr. M." in e-mail replies. Of course, Ms. M. is aware that she is not the only victim of this assumed ignorance. Only recently, a colleague whose last name is spelled with an apostrophe and not at all after pronunciation, smiled about her ailments. But, at least that's how Ms. M. feels, the colleagues seem to be written more often with “Mr.” than the colleagues with “Ms.”. Only recently Ms. M. made the mistake herself.

She described a previously unknown press spokeswoman with an ambiguous name in an email as a man. The self-shame was great - as always when you only see the mistakes in the others, but are not immune to them yourself. And what does that have to do with appreciation? Well, Ms. M. sees it this way: If you are not really interested in your counterpart, you can show it very quickly in this way. Ten seconds to google the name should be there. If that doesn't help? Well, then there is a simple solution, also because there are definitely people nowadays who do not want any gender-related salutation at all: You start your request with "Hello, first name, last name" or simply with "Hello". Sounds a bit bumpy, but demonstrates cleverness.