What does ‘per my last email’ actually mean?

"Per my last email" has become one of the most dissected phrases in workplace communication, largely because it sits right on the boundary between professional shorthand and quiet frustration. The phrase itself is grammatically neutral — it simply means "as I already said." But the context in which people reach for it is almost never neutral.

When a colleague or manager writes "per my last email," they are usually signalling that they already answered your question, addressed your concern, or provided the information you're now asking for again. The subtext is: I shouldn't have to say this twice. It's a polite way of pointing out that you either didn't read their previous message or forgot what it said. The politeness is the point — it lets them express irritation while maintaining plausible deniability that they were anything other than helpful.

That said, not every use carries this weight. In fast-moving threads with many participants, people genuinely use "per my last email" as a reference anchor — a way of saying "scroll down for the details, I'm not going to repeat them here." When someone CCs a new person onto an existing thread, "per my last email" often just means "here's the relevant context." There's no sting in it.

The relationship matters. From a manager, this phrase can feel like a reprimand. From a peer, it's usually mild annoyance. From a client, it often signals that they feel their time is being wasted — which is a more urgent problem to address. From someone in a support or vendor role, it's almost always literal.

Cultural context also plays a role. In American and British professional culture, the phrase has acquired a meme-like reputation for passive aggression, which means senders are sometimes aware of the connotation and choosing it deliberately. In other professional cultures, it may carry no secondary meaning at all.

If you receive this phrase and suspect it's pointed, the best response is to acknowledge the original message directly: "Thanks — I see that now in your earlier note." Don't apologise excessively, but do signal that you've gone back and read what they sent. The worst thing you can do is ask the same question a third time.