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

[Anonymous]

Fed here. I do a lot of technical research and writing and have ADHD. So, I check emails every two hours (or sooner if I reach the end of a task). And when I do, I strongly prefer one touch. I block off 10-15 minutes. I respond to my manager. I try very hard to also respond to peers, even if it’s “I’ll have an answer by COB.” Mark things that need followup, copy info I’llneed later to One Note and archive everything else.

But my job has long deadlines and longer term productivity requirements. And very little team work. There is a lot of work has to get done and a premium on efficiency, but truly urgent situations are few and far between.

I do respond immediately to Skype IMs and calls from any source. And that’s how people who need an answer now tend to communicate in my division. An unwritten rule is to reserve IMs for “need an answer now”.

But, again Im a Fed with 100% telework. Once my day is over and I log out, my computer must be locked or powered off I get reprimanded. We deal with a lot of PII. Leaving you laptop unlocked if you aren’t sitting in front of it during official duty time will get telework revoked. Outside the core hours of 9:30-2:30, the expectation is the person might not be in the office for a few hours/ until the next business day. Pushing emails to personal devices is absolutely forbidden.

I also have a lot of freedom to flex out and work 4 hours, go to an appointment and work 4 more. But my manager always knows when I leave and approx when I’ll be back. And I can’t get email during that time.

Also, if I’m doing my job well, I need very little direction, supervision or management. In an ideal world, I only have substantive communication with my manager once or twice a month. Emails from my manager are usually branch wide “I’ll be out of the office” or “complete this training by Friday” sort. I don’t tend to screw things up. But if I do, I’ll hear about it on Skype. Usually a call if it’s something I can fix before it becomes a big issue. I’ve had the same manager for a long time and she’s great about not creating unnecessary paper trails.

So basically within 2 hours during my work hours (usually 8:30 to 5). But immediately respond to Skype.