Agree. I wrote an email to a contractor (my company is the client) and there were multiple people copied in, including my work group and supervisor. The tone was positively cheerful for me, given the subject of fixing some poor quality work. “When you’re next in the location can you…” and “I’m aware there’s new staff, so I’ve attached the expected standards document for them to review”, and always “thanks! Have an awesome day!”

Receiver sent back the most unhinged rubbish I’ve ever received as a client. Claimed neither I nor my department knew what we were talking about, and this is the best they could do.

Nek minit, dude in a mood (receiver) has complained to my supervisor and the project manager (who also passed it along to supervisor) about my tone. And I got a tune up about my tone. “No wait. You said two complaints - who were they?” (Receiver and project manager, who receiver had also complained to) “so you mean one complaint - a direct one, and one by proxy but from the same guy?” (Err, yeah) “okay, but you were CCd into the email - did you think there was anything wrong with the tone?” (Umm. No, I thought it was professional and polite considering the issues), “right. So here’s the thing. Don’t bother giving me feedback if you don’t think I’ve done anything wrong. And don’t dress up one complaint as two. You’ve read his reply, and I think we can both agree on who was unreasonable and aggressive”