Stick to your guns

Work out your own rule and stick to it. You don't usually e-kiss people you've never met in person, but because they did you worry you'll look stand-offish if you don't? Tough. You're only making it harder for yourself. If you start kissing some emails and not others to the same person, they'll start reading into why you did or didn't.

In particular, if you manage people and you kiss their emails often, but then because you're having to tell them something awkward you leave it off, the sudden absence is incredibly loud. Ditto the other way around: if you never do and then deploy it tactically to soften the blow, it'll be obvious. Make your digital kissy bed and lie in it.

Three, two, one...

How many is too many in a work environment? Well, for a start, you know those messages you sometimes get on What's App or Facebook which are nothing but kisses? Just a long string of Xs that basically serve as acknowledgment of the previous message and affection toward the sender of it? Yeah, that's too many.

One kiss is fairly neutral territory these days, and acts a slight softener in the same way that any flowery bits on email do. All that “Hope you're well” and “Have a lovely evening” – you know they add nothing to whatever it is you're getting across, but they're part of an accepted structure, as is the single kiss. The more kisses, the more familiar you are with the recipient: save three or more for family and friends.

The rules of digital kissing: is it ever appropriate to sign off work emails with a kiss?