Polite way of asking my manager to read my email PROPERLY?

[Mls1984btc]

to all the clever peeps on mumsnet,

my manager has a tendency of scanning email content and reply according to what he thinks the content is, instead of what the content is. I had to quote my emails back multiple times to get him back on track.

I had this upcoming email which required his feedback, currently in draft. It is quite lengthy (necessary) but filled with information that he absolutely must know.I do appreciate that he got hundreds of emails every day but this lack of feedbacks plus short reply email to fob me off is getting to me.

All I want from him is to spend a good 5 minutes reading the email, then another 5 drafting the response.

Short of sitting down and go through the email with him (tempting), is there anything I should put on my email to grab his attention so that he will responds accordingly?

Highlight the key important issues in bold ?

I used to highlight the important bits in yellow

Number the points and be explicit about the actions required for each.

[Name redacted for privacy reasons], this comes up every appraisal. Your definition of what I need to know and mine are very different. Please, please take the time to edit your emails and get your point across succinctly.

Bullet points?

I always use bullet points esp if I'm asking a number of question or seeking clarification. Otherwise some people jot off a quick one line response answering only the first point.

i did the highlighting and points to direct his response. I even set up a table with a separate column to indicate response is required. He will just reply back with a random point, of which I will have to follow up with thanks for point 3 & 5 but what about point 1,2 & 4.

Does he HAVE ten minutes to spend on each email? I certainly don’t…are all your emails essential? If so I think a face to face conversation about what you need is called for.

Stop using email - just share/email a link to a OneNote or MSTeams channel - create some kind of table/list, where you set up a column with a checkbox to acknowledge mgr review. Ask him to review each checkbox to confirm he has read the info, or to approve the actions proposed, or whatever.

If you use Teams Lists app, you have the ability for comments and hashtags to be left also.

This! That level of detail needs a meeting not an email.

No I appreciate that he certainly does not have 10 minutes for every email, that is why i am used to his way of responding and just take what I can and deduce the rest myself.

however this particular email is different. He will actually have to read it to understand what’s actually happening to feed that back to another team.

I

Thanks for this! I will certainly investigate this method

you have to find a way to tailor the information to this style of reader. Brevity is required, but so is being ridiculously explicit.

I have taken to including a section that says something like (and it is just a few bullet points)
“these are the 3 questions that I need you to answer”

or
“The details are below, but the 4 main takeaways are:

or

”I am providing the details so you may review, but my recommended plan is:
“

and in the details, next to a point that I know is likely to lead them off on a tangent or incorrect conclusion I head it off and explain in advance why they are wrong

part of taking this approach is a bit of confidence. even though it goes against my nature, I have learned that with certain people, you have to be forceful. Except in my head I don’t say it that way. I remind myself to be a bitch. I hate that word, but it helps so much when I start to be too passive.

I would have a quick meeting if it's that important.

Could you send emails over the course of a week asking each thing in turn?

I'd book a quick meeting with the content of the email in the invite if poss.

Thanks everybody.

I guess a meeting is inevitable. I will pop by and see if he is free, sent him the email on the spot and go through the email with him.

For once in my life I find myself thinking 'this email sounds like it should be a meeting' instead of the other way round :)

I would book a short meeting with him and attach the details he needs to know as a pre-read. You can make sure all points are addressed then.

Me too!! Lol

Me too

😝

😂

I am very conscious of how work time is precious and hates hogging more than is required (and hates it when people do the same to me).

Our line manager does this.
We wondered why they didn’t reply to the points we’d raised further down our emails.
We figured they were reading emails on their phone.

Changing the layout to get the decision or important update at the start helped us.

Also helps if you can look at your own emails with a critical eye before you send them, cut out the waste.

Oh it’s about a particular email! I thought it was in general sorry, just back from gym and no blood in my brain earlier 😂

Yes. A meeting .

Bullet points starting with key words in bold.
Purpose: Information to enable [insert]; Decision required; requires input to enable [what]
Action required, who, when

No attachments. Link to documents if an absolute must.

Max 5 points - any more then matter to big to incorporate in email.