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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Within an hour, if you need longer than that then please give an acknowledgment email within the hour.

No expectation to respond outside of 9-5.

All these people who want a response within an hour - do you ever pick up the phone? If it's urgent, I call people. If it has to be a written request, I still call to make sure they're available and that they saw my email or know to expect it.

I only call if it is something that can't be explained in an email--and only as a followup to an email. It is important for us to have a record of the request and conversation. Can't really do that on the phone.

[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.

This seems like a basic expectation, I’m surprised by a lot of these responses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This seems like a basic expectation, I’m surprised by a lot of these responses.

The bigger an org is and the more emails people are getting, the less feasible it is for "someone in your org sends you an email asking for something" to create a time-sensitive obligation.

[Anonymous]

Do you just do email all day? I’m in probably 4-5 hours of meetings, have products to do, and have 100 emails in my inbox every day, even with aggressI’ve filters.

Requests are made to my management, setup with an introductory meeting, or a ticketing system. If you email me, I might see it in a week when I power through my email on a Friday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Within an hour, if you need longer than that then please give an acknowledgment email within the hour.

No expectation to respond outside of 9-5.

All these people who want a response within an hour - do you ever pick up the phone? If it's urgent, I call people. If it has to be a written request, I still call to make sure they're available and that they saw my email or know to expect it.

m
That’s so annoying, though. I hate when anyone cold calls. If you want something urgent, text me. I’m going to ignore your call.

You’re going to ignore a call but then expect someone else to respond to an email within 1hr? That’s….insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This seems like a basic expectation, I’m surprised by a lot of these responses.

The bigger an org is and the more emails people are getting, the less feasible it is for "someone in your org sends you an email asking for something" to create a time-sensitive obligation.

If your org is that big, shouldn’t there be more segregation of duties and enough employees to handle tasks accordingly?

If you’re that high up, have the requests go to your subordinates so you’re not wasting your time with junk.

[Anonymous]

Depends how critical it is. Last week I had a few important requests.

I sent an email with request. I gave it five minutes no response I walked to your office We are two days in person so a 40 percent chance you are there.

Back to desk, check if you are in a meeting, if not send you a teams message.

But 30 minutes I follow up with your boss for a response and cc any co-workers who could also help.

I alerted everyone last week I had critical requests coming in that will need answers quickly. Not my problem you decided to take the day off to WFH and watch Trash TV and eat potato chips and snacks in your pajamas.

In a normal situation I wait a day or two but urgent I need it now

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This seems like a basic expectation, I’m surprised by a lot of these responses.

The bigger an org is and the more emails people are getting, the less feasible it is for "someone in your org sends you an email asking for something" to create a time-sensitive obligation.

If your org is that big, shouldn’t there be more segregation of duties and enough employees to handle tasks accordingly?

If you’re that high up, have the requests go to your subordinates so you’re not wasting your time with junk.

Where I dealt with this was DoD. There weren't enough employees to handle everything and we couldn't very well make Congress give us more. But also, just because someone sends an email asking for something doesn't make that ask important or even something I was allowed to do. And I also sent emails and follow-ups that never got responded to. It's not ideal, but if it's important and you have the right to be asking, you'll escalate through your leadership and they can decide whether to prioritize it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depends how critical it is. Last week I had a few important requests.

I sent an email with request. I gave it five minutes no response I walked to your office We are two days in person so a 40 percent chance you are there.

Back to desk, check if you are in a meeting, if not send you a teams message.

But 30 minutes I follow up with your boss for a response and cc any co-workers who could also help.

I alerted everyone last week I had critical requests coming in that will need answers quickly. Not my problem you decided to take the day off to WFH and watch Trash TV and eat potato chips and snacks in your pajamas.

In a normal situation I wait a day or two but urgent I need it now

Your emergency isn't mine - sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Within an hour, if you need longer than that then please give an acknowledgment email within the hour.

No expectation to respond outside of 9-5.

All these people who want a response within an hour - do you ever pick up the phone? If it's urgent, I call people. If it has to be a written request, I still call to make sure they're available and that they saw my email or know to expect it.

I used to, but found out Gen Z hates phone calls so I tried to accommodate them. Overtime we will get into a good pace as a team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depends how critical it is. Last week I had a few important requests.

I sent an email with request. I gave it five minutes no response I walked to your office We are two days in person so a 40 percent chance you are there.

Back to desk, check if you are in a meeting, if not send you a teams message.

But 30 minutes I follow up with your boss for a response and cc any co-workers who could also help.

I alerted everyone last week I had critical requests coming in that will need answers quickly. Not my problem you decided to take the day off to WFH and watch Trash TV and eat potato chips and snacks in your pajamas.

In a normal situation I wait a day or two but urgent I need it now

Hahahaha good luck with that

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Within an hour, if you need longer than that then please give an acknowledgment email within the hour.

No expectation to respond outside of 9-5.

All these people who want a response within an hour - do you ever pick up the phone? If it's urgent, I call people. If it has to be a written request, I still call to make sure they're available and that they saw my email or know to expect it.

I don’t call because at my workplace the culture is to never answer the phone. Voicemails are transcribed and sent to email, and the response comes as an email.

I hope your workplace culture is also to never get bent out of shape when somebody takes a while to answer emails, then.

Email is just a faster letter. I may or may not have seen it within an hour of when you sent it, and you won't know because you didn't try to reach me more directly. Whether that other way is phone or chat or text doesn't really matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depends how critical it is. Last week I had a few important requests.

I sent an email with request. I gave it five minutes no response I walked to your office We are two days in person so a 40 percent chance you are there.

Back to desk, check if you are in a meeting, if not send you a teams message.

But 30 minutes I follow up with your boss for a response and cc any co-workers who could also help.

I alerted everyone last week I had critical requests coming in that will need answers quickly. Not my problem you decided to take the day off to WFH and watch Trash TV and eat potato chips and snacks in your pajamas.

In a normal situation I wait a day or two but urgent I need it now

You're the one who wants information. If you needed me to not take leave, that should have been worked out with me and my boss. You don't sound like a coworker anyone wants to go out of their way for, though.

[Anonymous]

I'm an attorney. I have probably 400-600 emails a day that demand my attention. I spend probably 3-7 hours a day on client calls.

During a presentation a few years ago, a consultant told us that clients said a response within 18 minutes was considered timely, and anything beyond that untimely. So i try to respond to everything within an hour at least with "will look and revert. Timing is noted".

I generally need to be reading and sending emails during all my client calls. Some of those calls, I'm less integral so it's easy to multitask. Some of those calls, I am the star of the show, but i'm still reading emails and responding while talking.

I'm very, very good at my job. For the academic above who said 7-10 days is good responsiveness: That's fine in your industry but i would posit there's a reason why i get paid 10 times an academic's salary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends how critical it is. Last week I had a few important requests.

I sent an email with request. I gave it five minutes no response I walked to your office We are two days in person so a 40 percent chance you are there.

Back to desk, check if you are in a meeting, if not send you a teams message.

But 30 minutes I follow up with your boss for a response and cc any co-workers who could also help.

I alerted everyone last week I had critical requests coming in that will need answers quickly. Not my problem you decided to take the day off to WFH and watch Trash TV and eat potato chips and snacks in your pajamas.

In a normal situation I wait a day or two but urgent I need it now

Hahahaha good luck with that

I said if urgent. Usually I don’t care. But my work is making sure you do your work.