Per my last email meaning: I already told you

Why it reads as passive-aggressive

The phrase says the answer was already in your inbox and you didn’t read it. The sender comes out organized and the reader comes out careless. It stays deniable, because on paper the sender only pointed at an email.

British office workers put it top of the list. It annoys 25% of them, more than any other phrase. “Just looping you in” comes second at 23%, and “not sure if you saw my email” third at 22%. “Any updates on this?” gets 18% and “just a friendly reminder” 17%. Email takes the whole podium.

Rarer than its reputation

For a phrase this hated, it hardly ever gets sent. In 1,000,967 real emails it turns up 89 times, about once in every 11,000. Circle back turns up 533 times.

Online it’s louder. It gets a mention in 5% of US tweets about corporate jargon, which is a lot of airtime for 89 emails.

Per my last email meaning in context

The phrase has two jobs. Pointing back at a fact (“per my last email, the deadline is the 14th”) is housekeeping. Pointing back at a failure (“per my last email, which I’ll paste again below”) is a telling-off with a paper trail. The reader decides which one arrived, and in a thread that’s already tense, they read the second.

When it goes to reply-all

The phrase does its worst work on a long recipient list. Take the December email asking the whole team to chip in for the boss’s present, with a suggested amount. Etiquette says presents at work travel down the ladder and never up, and the email went out anyway. The follow-up opens with per my last email and says the envelope closes on Friday.

There are three ways out. “Not in my budget”, sent to the organiser alone, ends it politely. Silence ends it too, since nobody wants to chase a colleague about the boss’s present. The reply-all asking whether the share can be worked off as overtime ends it loudest, and gets remembered at review time.

Somebody also drafts an anonymous note to the whole list about which way presents are meant to travel. It stays in drafts.

As per, since the 1500s

The phrase rests on “as per”, meaning “according to”. It’s at home in business and legal writing, which is why it can read like a lawyer drafted it. Nobody agrees how old it is. The dates on offer are 1569, 1665 to 1675, and about 1782. Who first typed it into an email is unknown, and nobody has come forward.

The meme

Memes built on the phrase date back to August 2019. The “punching man” version was first posted on March 19, 2022. The archive that tracks it still lists its full history as being researched. Someone is waiting on a reply.

Nicer ways to say it

Keep the correction and drop the blame. A few ways to do that:

• “Resending the details below so they’re all in one place.”
• “Pasting the key part again here to save you digging.”
• “My last email buried this, so here it is on its own.”
• “Adding the deadline again, since the thread got long.”

Each one keeps the facts and loses the accusation. That’s most of how to professionally say something while annoyed. A calm line from the funny email sign-offs covers the rest.

Sending their words back

The strongest reply is often the sender’s own email. A note that scolds someone for leaving a few minutes early has set the rule: time is counted to the minute. So count it. Stay a few minutes past the hour each day and keep the tally next to the 5pm countdown. On Friday, leave that much earlier, with the original email attached as your policy. Copying the sender’s manager is optional. It is also never forgotten.

The same move works on a memo. Management cuts the holiday rate, describes paid holidays as time to rest, then writes that it’s disappointed nobody was a team player. The team can answer in the memo’s own words. Per your last email, holidays are for rest. Everyone rested.

An email thread with per my last email

Subject: RE: RE: RE: Invoice 4471

Hi Dan, per my last email as I already told you (Tuesday, 10:14), the PO number is 88-2041 and the invoice goes to accounts payable, not to me. Pasting both below again. Have a great weekend.