Emails ignored, is this bullying?

[LakesandSnow]

I work in an organisation of approx 200 people. My emails are often completely ignored by people men even when I have directly asked them (rather than, say, copying them in on something). Part of my job involves raising funds for the company, the people ignoring my emails could positively impact on this at no cost to themselves. (And arguably would benefit from it).
The big boss (female) who I report directly into has previously agreed it is really rude but not really done anything about it except make supportive noises.
I'm utterly fed up. I do a good job but I feel invisible, thwarted and really down.

What would be the perfect response from your point of view OP?

Can you turn it into a win for other people too?

@MichelleScarn

I'm intrigued as to what it is! In normal times I'd be thinking it's having a stand at an expo or something?

That would be a business decision though - not just something you could ignore on email.

Ah thanks @EmmaH2022 the business world is a mystery to me!

@LakesandSnow

It's not a sponsored walk type thing, it's more like "you doing this one small thing will pull us in new clients and keep us afloat". The particular man I'm thinking of literally has this in his job title?! He still hasn't replied and although not new to the organisation, he's been in this new role for a few months now so I would hope still at the "keen to impress" stage. I would even settle for a "sorry I'm too busy" response over none at all.

Well what you do in that situation is find the original email, forward it to him again, this time as high priority with a read receipt (and cc it to your boss), saying something like:

"Further to my previous email dated ..... - see below, I wonder if you could please kindly respond at your earliest convenience. Many thanks, Lakes."

"Well what you do in that situation is find the original email, forward it to him again, this time as high priority with a read receipt (and cc it to your boss), saying something like:

"Further to my previous email dated ..... - see below, I wonder if you could please kindly respond at your earliest convenience. Many thanks, Lakes."

This is only appropriate if it's important and OP said her boss isn't bothered either.

So intrigued to know what it is. It reminds me of the "pieces of flair" in Office Space so far.

Yeah @EmmaH2022 but if it is so unimportant, why is the OP sending the thing in the first place?

I dunno if this person annoying OP is a bully. I can only add this tuppence..

Gosh OP, you so do not want my job. DH is often flabberghasted when I tell him I literally am 'waiting' on 12 other people before I can progress anything. I work in academia which means formal (paid to collaborate with my group) collaborators in my dept, in other depts at my Uni, in depts at other Unis, in civil service, in local health & social care.... There are also informal collaborators (not contracted to do anything for/with me), people whose good will I simply hope to call on.

I can point to chronic 'ignorers' in each and every group, of every age & sex. I can also point to extremely diligent quick responders (of every age & sex, in every group, too). A lot of people are just very disorganised, or in such high demand, that they only deal with the most visible demands placed on them.

@caranations

Yeah *@EmmaH2022* but if it is so unimportant, why is the OP sending the thing in the first place?

A lot of jobs are created to encourage employees to do certain things, but the things aren't compulsory.

@caranations

What does that mean please?

@EmmaH2022 - it's kind of a confused / WTF face. Probably is response to the OP.

[quote iklboo]@EmmaH2022 - it's kind of a confused / WTF face. Probably is response to the OP. [/quote]
I'll rephrase

I wondered why the poster made that face at my comment, but maybe it wasn't at my comment.

You need a sentence in each email that basically says if you don’t come back to me by X date/time, then I will make the decision for you.

If you want to be nice, call a meeting and impress upon the staff the importance of a timely response as it costs the company money not too. And then tell them that you realise workloads are heavy and maybe you haven’t been as clear as you could be (dress it up a bit) and then tell them that when you have to send an email like this you’ll be clear of the end time or date you need this by and that if you receive no response inside that timescale you will assume they are happy to proceed with you particular option or whatever.

I work in project management though so sometimes if I don’t get an answer it throws off all my timelines and quite frankly I don’t have time for that.

You could take the softly softly approach and at the end of the month point out all the missed opportunities due to lack to response and ask you manager how you can better encourage colleagues to respond.

You could take the softly softly approach and at the end of the month point out all the missed opportunities due to lack to response and ask you manager how you can better encourage colleagues to respond.

Spectaulalry bad advice! Your manager will be pissed off you didn't do your job properly for a month and colleagues will be pissed off you dropped them in it with the boss instead of speaking to them!

ChiefWiggumsBoy
You need a sentence in each email that basically says if you don’t come back to me by X date/time, then I will make the decision for you.

Just going to point out that this won't work if its some else's time, personnel usage or budget that the OP is trying to take.

If you've sent the email and had no response then start calling. 'hi xxx I'm calling because you haven't replied to the email I sent on xx and I need an answer.'

Do it every time and you'll learn one of 3 things (1) they prefer a call and it's a better way to engage their help (2) they hate calls and will start replying to your email to avoid the call (3) they avoid your calls too, in which case you should resend the email to them and their manager saying 'as per email on xxx and again on xx and phone call on xx and xx I do need an answer to my query, [managers name] this is now urgent with a deadline of xx can you please assist me in ensuring that [rude persons name] is allocated time to support this requirement, alternatively can you delegate to someone else to provide the response'.

I've been trying to think what the OP could be requesting, too, and come up with:

Looking for volunteers to attend or organise some kind of outreach or promotional event
Attending conferences/ events and networking
Agreeing to promote the company/ service via their personal social media
Joining business networking groups in order to promote the company
Committing to writing online reviews for the company or service or getting others to do so
Sending those tedious 'how did we do, would you recommend us' emails after every contact, and continuing to do so until the person receiving them fills them in and returns them and vows never to have anything to do with the company again

They are all the kind of requests that most people just ignore because they are unreasonable add-ons to one's work.

I understand and also get annoyed at people who do not reply to emails, but that's more their ability and disorganisation, not bullying.

I use phone calls if a decision is really needed.

@Pluvia

I've been trying to think what the OP could be requesting, too, and come up with:

Looking for volunteers to attend or organise some kind of outreach or promotional event
Attending conferences/ events and networking
Agreeing to promote the company/ service via their personal social media
Joining business networking groups in order to promote the company
Committing to writing online reviews for the company or service or getting others to do so
Sending those tedious 'how did we do, would you recommend us' emails after every contact, and continuing to do so until the person receiving them fills them in and returns them and vows never to have anything to do with the company again

They are all the kind of requests that most people just ignore because they are unreasonable add-ons to one's work.

That's what I'm picturing, especially as OP manager isn't fussed

Or something about greenness.

@Pluvia

I've been trying to think what the OP could be requesting, too, and come up with:

Looking for volunteers to attend or organise some kind of outreach or promotional event
Attending conferences/ events and networking
Agreeing to promote the company/ service via their personal social media
Joining business networking groups in order to promote the company
Committing to writing online reviews for the company or service or getting others to do so
Sending those tedious 'how did we do, would you recommend us' emails after every contact, and continuing to do so until the person receiving them fills them in and returns them and vows never to have anything to do with the company again

They are all the kind of requests that most people just ignore because they are unreasonable add-ons to one's work.

The problem is that while these things are annoying to many of us they're also essential for some people roles.

For example if your employer is certified against some quality/environmental accreditations/standards then part of the audit is that you have to show evidence of staff engagement and awareness of the companies quality/environmental stance, you have to be able to evidence feedback is being sought, received, analysed and acted on to identify continuous improvement and corrective actions and that those are then being communicated to top management and acted on.

It might seem like an annoying request to fill in a survey to you but to someone else in the company it's an essential piece of evidence that could mean the difference between retaining or losing the certification. Which could then have knock on effects in retaining or signing new contracts.

Half those things are usually presented as essential. I didn't get the impression OP was chasing up on essential stuff and her manager would be more concerned if that was the job?

Is the subject of your emails actually part of their job or not ?

You say it would “help” but haven’t been clear if they are expected to do it as part of their job.

Is it one of those where you pester people to share posts on LinkedIn to benefit the company ?

In which case, surely, it's part of the job's requirement?

The way the OP phrased it it's as if she's asking people to do the company a favour.

If you emailed me asking me to do the company a favour I’d laugh and delete.

I don’t get paid enough to want to do the company a favour.

Calling it bullying makes you seem a bit thin-skinned