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I have two questions about "You are welcome" in business chats.

  1. When someone asks me to do something and I get back to them with some form of "done", they, in turn, respond with "Thank You. So far so good. At that moment am I obligated to post back "You're welcome"? Is it actually rude if I don't?

  2. Second question about abbreviations. I often see "thx" or "TY" for "Thanks"/"Thank you". Is there an accepted abbreviated form of "You're welcome". I came up with "wcm" but not sure whether it's appropriate.

Additional clarification

  • I'm fully aware of "sure" and "np" responses but my question is only about "welcome".
  • I would like to respond "in kind" (if I have to respond at all). So for abbreviation I would like to respond with the same.
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  • i use "like and subscribe" instead of "ur welcome", but only with a few colleagues
    – aaaaa says reinstate Monica
    May 7, 2020 at 23:33
  • I would suggest NP (no problem aka it was not a problem aka not a big deal) instead of wcm. Unless of course it was a big deal, in which case you’re welcome is better.
    – jmoreno
    May 7, 2020 at 23:47
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    If you're using something like Slack a thumbs up or smiley face can also get the point across (assuming others also use them).
    – BSMP
    May 7, 2020 at 23:59
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    For #2, most people in my US office type "yw".
    – Laconic Droid
    May 8, 2020 at 0:26
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    NP for “No problem” has been a common response that I’ve seen.
    – John Oglesby
    May 8, 2020 at 20:28

4 Answers 4

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Some people don't care and don't feel any need to adhere to traditional standards of politeness. That's fine, but I'll answer in the context of a culture that does value politeness (Texas), where people are raised to use their "sirs" and "ma'ams" and suchlike. Just like you don't want to be the worst dressed at a party, you don't want to be the least polite of your possibly global group.

Given that context, it's generally considered polite not to "leave someone hanging" in a chat conversation, and a "thank you" waiting on a response is an incomplete part of a normal exchange as much as an ACK waiting on a SYNACK is.

What I normally see is a "thanks", "thank you", or "ty".

Customary responses include "you're welcome", "yw", "no problem", "np", "sure," a thumbs-up emoticon, or similar. Or often "Cheers" if you're a furriner.

Note that the older the person is the more likely whole words will be taken well, and if they are older than about 55 then responding with "no problem" or "sure" instead of "you're welcome" will be taken as a sign of poor manners in "these kids nowadays" and you'll be complained about to their SO later that night.

Even in chat, adapt formality to seniority and the other person's tone. If a VP says, "Thank you very much PM 77-1!", you responding with "np" would be considered putting "less" into the exchange and therefore a slight.

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At that moment am I obligated to post back "You're welcome"? Is it actually rude if I don't?

You are not obligated to respond, although being polite back to someone never hurt anybody. This also should be taken on a case-by-case basis (it's ok to not reply back every time).

Is there an accepted abbreviated form of "You're welcome". I came up with "wcm" but not sure whether it's appropriate.

Call me old-fashioned but abbreviations are not professional, and also hamper readability. Typing "you're welcome" takes about one second (less with text suggestion), so it's not something that will hurt you, but someone reading "wcm" will surely take some time to decode.

Anyways, using abbreviations is not bad per se, as long as communication is not compromised.

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Chats are usually pretty informal.

But each company has their own culture. What might be considered overly informal in one company is considered completely normal in another.

See how chats are used in your company, and just go along.

At that moment am I obligated to post back "You're welcome"? Is it actually rude if I don't?

It wouldn't be considered rude where I worked.

I came up with "wcm" but not sure whether it's appropriate.

It would be confusing to me, and I personally don't like most unusual abbreviations. But if it's the norm at your shop, it's completely appropriate.

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I typically reply with things akin to "you're welcome" along with an invitation to message again if they need anything else.

Regarding abbreviation of "thank you" etc. I hate them.

If you're going to go to all the trouble of thanking someone, the least you can do is actually type out the full thing.

If I felt really compelled to use an abbreviation, I would actually throw a smiley emoji onto the end of the message so it didn't appear so lazy.

As https://workplace.stackexchange.com/a/157977 indicates, it's about effort. You don't want to be going over the top, but you do want to at least look like your message is sincere enough to actually spell it out.

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  • I agree, abbreviations look lazy and insincere, maybe a cultural thing, but I always write it out in full.
    – Kilisi ♦
    May 10, 2020 at 8:04

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