At your workplace, is the expectation that you will respond to emails in a timely fashion?

[Anonymous]

Like say someone emails you and says ‘I’m trying to determine X and I need access to the data from your group for blah blah’. What would be the general expectation for a response?


Respond with an acknowledgment within a day, although the substance might take longer
Respond with substance right away or withIn a day
Take a week to respond at all
No expectation

[Anonymous]

Well I’m a legal secretary, so you can expect a response between 8:30-5pm.

[Anonymous]

3 hours max

[Anonymous]

The best attorneys spend at least some time in private practice, and the expectation there is that you must always respond within 1 hour.

Phone calls, 30 minutes.

Doesn't matter what time of day.

[Anonymous]

Completely depends on urgency. I would expect to also get a call/text if it’s same-day urgent. Otherwise, I’ll try to get back to people before the COB that day. If I have a lot going on, I’ll respond with a quick placeholder and let them know when I anticipate responding (tomorrow, later in the week etc). I work in nonprofits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The best attorneys spend at least some time in private practice, and the expectation there is that you must always respond within 1 hour.

Phone calls, 30 minutes.

Doesn't matter what time of day.

LOL, no. People go to meetings, they travel, they sleep. If I messed with my phone during a big client meeting so I could hit some arbitrary timeline for response, I would lose that client and rightly so.

[Anonymous]

Self employed running my own 1099 consulting business:

Any non-call message (email, slack, WhatsApp Signal, Imessage etc.) from 8-6 EST hours M-F is within the hour (unless in a meeting)

Calls are usually returned within 15 minutes If I do happen to miss it or as I finish another meeting.

Setting expectations clear of when you're available and mentioning to the client that I afford all my clients the same level of respect (no taking other calls during protected time with a client) if they happen to create a fuss over a delayed call or email back which thankfully hasn't happened as all my clients thus far have been understanding.

People notice patterns. If you usually respond quickly and you happen to miss something and take a day then it's not as bad per se as constantly ignoring your client.

Even if you can't fulfill the request immediately, just a quick note saying you've seen their message and are working on it goes along way for relationship building.

What I mainly do is relationship building and sharing a cell number and chatting over a messaging app can blue the lines occasionally so it's important to set boundaries upfront (I usually stipulate in the contract my hours of availability M-F with the potential to respond outside these hours for emergencies).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best attorneys spend at least some time in private practice, and the expectation there is that you must always respond within 1 hour.

Phone calls, 30 minutes.

Doesn't matter what time of day.

LOL, no. People go to meetings, they travel, they sleep. If I messed with my phone during a big client meeting so I could hit some arbitrary timeline for response, I would lose that client and rightly so.

+1

[Anonymous]

The expectation is a response by EOD (even if it’s just saying that you’re looking into it/noting that it’s in progress and won’t be ready until X).

At most a response the next day, especially if the original email was sent late on day one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The expectation is a response by EOD (even if it’s just saying that you’re looking into it/noting that it’s in progress and won’t be ready until X).

At most a response the next day, especially if the original email was sent late on day one.

Yeah this is how normal people behave.

[Anonymous]

But this isn't an email from a manager or a client. Asking another group for their data is a notorious problem because you may need it but that doesn't mean they prioritize getting it to you, or even want you to have it. I've gotten emails like this in previous jobs where I'm forwarding it to my manager to figure out how we're going to handle this, and no responses are getting sent until that's sorted out.

[Anonymous]

1 day

If you need a quicker response you need to call me or ping on teams

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But this isn't an email from a manager or a client. Asking another group for their data is a notorious problem because you may need it but that doesn't mean they prioritize getting it to you, or even want you to have it. I've gotten emails like this in previous jobs where I'm forwarding it to my manager to figure out how we're going to handle this, and no responses are getting sent until that's sorted out.

This- this is what's jumping out at me. This person has the perfect answer. You don't have to "jump - how high" if another group makes a request. Depends on so many things

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But this isn't an email from a manager or a client. Asking another group for their data is a notorious problem because you may need it but that doesn't mean they prioritize getting it to you, or even want you to have it. I've gotten emails like this in previous jobs where I'm forwarding it to my manager to figure out how we're going to handle this, and no responses are getting sent until that's sorted out.

You can acknowledge getting the request and say your team will get back to them.
Just not responding is poor form.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But this isn't an email from a manager or a client. Asking another group for their data is a notorious problem because you may need it but that doesn't mean they prioritize getting it to you, or even want you to have it. I've gotten emails like this in previous jobs where I'm forwarding it to my manager to figure out how we're going to handle this, and no responses are getting sent until that's sorted out.

You can acknowledge getting the request and say your team will get back to them.
Just not responding is poor form.

It depends on the org and how political the request is.