Reasonable amount of time to respond to your supervisor or colleague?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
|
What’s a reasonable amount of time to respond to a voicemail, email, etc. from your supervisor? Assume there’s a question involved and they ask for a call, response, etc.
Is the timeline different for a colleague vs a supervisor or someone higher up in the food chain? There’s a wide range of opinions on this, so I’m curious what others think. |
Anonymous
|
Supervisor - 2 hours
Routine request - 24-48 hours I appreciate follow ups if I don't respond in three business days |
Anonymous
|
It just depends on what they are calling about and what else you have going on.
Generally speaking, I try to get back to people before COB, but if I know it can wait, I might stretch it to 24 hours or the next day. But if it is my supervisor and they need something right away and I'm not doing something important, like on another call or in a meeting or something, I'd probably just call them right back or email right away. It also kind of depends on what it is. If someone emails me a question and I can just type out the answer without having to check on anything I'll just reply right away. If I have to consult my crazy calendar about scheduling something, I may put it off until I have a moment to deal with that. |
Anonymous
| I try to respond to everyone within an hour, but I realize that busier people get a lot more requests. |
Anonymous
|
For supervisor, immediately if at all possible.
|
Anonymous
| An hour. Even if I have to say "I'll reach out to Dara and Lara and get back to you." |
Anonymous
|
Curious how you would feel if you emailed someone junior who reports to/supports you with a request for a call to discuss X and you haven’t received a response within a few hours?
I find it irritating. When my supervisor reaches out, I tend to text or message them back quickly (“Sorry I missed your call. On another call. Will call when it wraps.”). I’d never ignore a message for hours. Would you assume the person is slacking/not working? |
Anonymous
| Better be Same Day! |
Anonymous
| Don't disregard cultural differences. I send out questions overnight to an overseas team expecting a great answer by the AM. SILENCE. For hours. Until I ask again. It irritates me for sure but I'm learning to work with them. |
Anonymous
| I work in consulting (99% of the time WFH) and the expectation is ~15 mins to reply to a manager / partner. We work remotely and people would assume you’ve logged off if you don’t reply immediately. Past 7pm, you probably have ~30 mins to reply before it looks really bad. I have seen others at my level get dinged in year end reviews for taking up to an hour to reply. |
Anonymous
+1. I usually respond immediately though. If I am in a meeting I let them know when I am available to discuss or when they can expect a response. |
Anonymous
|
For me, it is an hour for a supervisor. But I try to be less than ten minutes.
For most other people in my office, 24 hours. For more distant offices, it depends on the content. Depending on the season, I sometimes have a weeklong queue of emails and I don’t jump it unless obviously time sensitive. |
Anonymous
| Responses should be reasonably prompt. If a complete response will take some time, let the person know that and that you’re working on it. Silence is not a good look and people will fill-in the blanks for you. |
Anonymous
|
Supervisor- pretty much immediately. 2 hours.
Colleague- 48 hours. I follow up with colleagues when they haven't responded in 7 days. I'm an office that frequently requests complicated things from my colleagues (like an IG office) and I give everyone 7 days. Usually takes people 14 days. |
Anonymous
|
Same day.
Exceptions would be for something known to be urgent (much faster response, even if it is "I will get back to you later on this") or if the employee being asked is engaged in something similarly urgent and the request is known to be non-urgent, in which case next day is acceptable. |