Reasonable amount of time to respond to your supervisor or colleague?

[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?

Depends upon if X is time-sensitive or not. Is it an ongoing crisis, or is it a question about the menu for the employee picnic in three months?

[Anonymous]

I respond to supervisor right away if its simple or urgent, but if they are just forwarding me routine work or a research request, I don't respond until it's complete or if I have a question, which could be several days. I think my supervisor is too busy to want a ton of "got it!" responses, unless it's urgent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Depends upon if X is time-sensitive or not. Is it an ongoing crisis, or is it a question about the menu for the employee picnic in three months?

Does it really matter?

If your boss calls and says they need to speak to you, then you should respond quickly.

[Anonymous]

I saw a study (and now I can’t remember where) that the American business expectation is that emails will be returned within four hours. I assume that fields like education and medicine that take people away from desks for hours at a time are somewhat different. Also, when people call instead of email it’s usually due to wanting to get your attention quickly. In general, I think email response-time culture is less about time and more about setting expectations. I often find myself doing extra for the appearance of being responsive. I might send an email that says, “I need to research this. I’ll get back to you by…” or “I saw your VM/text/email, and I will get back to you as soon as my Zoom wraps up at x time.”

That said, my spouse works in law firm administration. Getting 200-500 emails a day isn’t unusual for a Big Law manager or director. In that environment, the expectation is that every response is as soon as can be practically managed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I respond to supervisor right away if its simple or urgent, but if they are just forwarding me routine work or a research request, I don't respond until it's complete or if I have a question, which could be several days. I think my supervisor is too busy to want a ton of "got it!" responses, unless it's urgent.

This.

I try to respond to emails from coworkers and others same day or the following day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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?

As a manager I also find it irritating when my employees take a long time to get back to me. I respond to my own manager quickly.

I usually don't assume that they're slacking, though. I know that some of them don't always keep their email or even chat notifications up at all times. It's a preference of theirs that I'm not going to try to break just because I am irritated. If it's time sensitive I will call, or follow up the email/chat with a call if they don't respond initially.

[Anonymous]

Non profit education now working in schools and student facing 75% of the day- a day or two for email, at least, is the expectation, unless there is a subject header requesting sooner. I respond to Slack, GChat, and texts within a few hours. Emails are almost always for things that take a chunk of focused time or investigation, or an in person convo before I respond, and that may not happen same day.

Even when I wasn’t student facing the majority of the day, the three or four ed nonprofits I’ve worked in the past were within a day or two for emails.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

As a manager I also find it irritating when my employees take a long time to get back to me. I respond to my own manager quickly.

I usually don't assume that they're slacking, though. I know that some of them don't always keep their email or even chat notifications up at all times. It's a preference of theirs that I'm not going to try to break just because I am irritated. If it's time sensitive I will call, or follow up the email/chat with a call if they don't respond initially.

Ditto. I have two employees who do this and I find it annoying but their work is great so I don’t say anything unless it impacts the project (ie they fail to consult on expectations because they don’t want to email) or they haven’t acknowledged receipt and it’s time sensitive.

[Anonymous]

If my office wants to reach me immediately, they need to provide a mobile phone. Short of that, they may have to wait half a day. I’m not sitting at my desk all day, and when I am, I’m doing something else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I respond to supervisor right away if its simple or urgent, but if they are just forwarding me routine work or a research request, I don't respond until it's complete or if I have a question, which could be several days. I think my supervisor is too busy to want a ton of "got it!" responses, unless it's urgent.

I disagree. As a supervisor, I want to know ASAP you "got it" and are on it, or if you have any questions. That said, I am at a company and culture (Corporate Communications) that expects rapid response.

[Anonymous]

Are you all monitoring your email while in meetings?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you all monitoring your email while in meetings?

Sample size of 1: yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you all monitoring your email while in meetings?

Sample size of 1: yes.

I learned that I have to. My CEO emails side conversations rather than text/chat during meetings.
Not my style, but I’m not the boss.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I respond to supervisor right away if its simple or urgent, but if they are just forwarding me routine work or a research request, I don't respond until it's complete or if I have a question, which could be several days. I think my supervisor is too busy to want a ton of "got it!" responses, unless it's urgent.

I disagree. As a supervisor, I want to know ASAP you "got it" and are on it, or if you have any questions. That said, I am at a company and culture (Corporate Communications) that expects rapid response.

Meh. I have an employee who does that for every request and it really gets on my nerves. I don’t need an email saying you understand and then another email saying it’s done. When I send an email asking you do to something, I expect that it will get done. I’ve come to realize she previously worked for a micromanager who expected to be updated on every little thing she did.

[Anonymous]

Supervisor - immediately. He has access to my calendar so he can tell if I’m in a scheduled meeting. If I don’t respond right away, he knows it’s because somebody popped in my office unexpectedly, but even then he’ll definitely hear from me within the hour.

Coworkers - I try to respond within the hour, even if it’s just to say “swamped today but I’ll get back to you in a bit.” If their message requires me to do some things, I at least shoot back a reply to tell them I’m on it and when roughly they can expect me to finish.

This is true for in-office days and WFH days. There’s nothing worse than somebody WFH who isn’t reachable. It’s plainly obvious they’re not actually working.