ChatGPT has become the go-to AI chatbot for many people looking to craft a “professional” email to their boss or resign their job. The chatbot was famously used by Mary, better known by her TikTok handle @sillyyerba, to help her quit a job she was no longer feeling satisfied or passionate about.
Mary’s employer had asked her to stay with the company until June 8, even after she had already handed in her two-week notice. To respond to her boss and sum up why she couldn’t stay any longer, the TikToker decided to turn to ChatGPT. In the prompt, she provided the AI chatbot with the message, “Write a professional email saying I can’t be sad and poor for another month replying to this email.”
The email drafted by ChatGPT sounded professional at the start. It expressed Mary’s appreciation for her employer and detailed why she could no longer work for them as of May 6th. It included the sentence, “As much as I value my time here, I cannot be sad and poor for another month,” and transitioned back to the common corporate tone in the following paragraph.
Mary asked her followers if she should actually send the email, and she received a variety of advice in the comments. Many of the commenters agreed she should go ahead with the email, while others suggested changes like replacing “sad and poor” with “mental health and financial reasons,” or “due to my financial and emotional priorities.” Mary ended up not sending the initial email, instead opting to have ChatGPT rewrite it to sound more “human.”
This isn’t the first time ChatGPT has been employed to help people draft emails and letters. People have used the AI chatbot to help craft resignation emails and to answer boring emails with professional-sounding messages.
All in all, ChatGPT has been an invaluable resource for those looking for help in creating an appropriate and sincere message, and for crafting content that makes sense in the language it is written for various scenarios. It is important to note that ChatGPT should never be used in place of a human-written email, but should instead either act as a quick reference for content or to aid in getting started on the letter. Doing this ensures that the content still has meaning and retains its human touch.
