How bad are your unread work emails?

[RosieLeaLovesTea]

How bad are your unread work emails and how long have you worked there?
for reference I had 1700 unread emails this morning. After a couple of hours I have cut it down to 845. Still got a way to go. I have worked there 3 yrs.

Yes, I do delete them from time to time; if they're more than a couple of months old and haven't been needed then I figure they won't be needed in the future.

Worked here 9 years and not got a single unread email! Go me!

I have less than 10.

The only time I get to read them is during my lunch break or if I arrive early/stay late, all of which are unpaid.

But fortunately, I don’t get many a day and most are general ones.

I always scan through them to see which ones need replying to straight away.

I once had a prolonged leave after an accident and surgery. Came back to thousands of emails. Got in a right state, until it occurred to me that anything important would have been taken care of. I deleted everything more than 2 weeks old. Guess what? Nothing bad happened. In fact, I dont think people even knew.

My manager is a big advocate of deleting every email if you are off for a fortnight. He says the email was either information (in which case you'll get it when the emails keep going on that topic), a request (which someone else will have dealt with by now) or nonsense.

How long since you last logged on?

I have 3 shared mailboxes (plus my own personal work email) and if I'm away for a week I come back to approximately 250 emails.

1700 is bonkers (unless you've been off for a while?) Why do you get so many emails? It's got to be a total waste of time to have to trawl through all those emails?

I'm at around 1200 unread, happy none of them are important. I do occasionally go to the Unread option and delete anything over 2 weeks old.

Most of mine are CCs where something is sent to the whole team, when someone else takes up the response I have no interest in following it. Personally I don't like Reply-All and try to filter down recipients.

I always remember something from a colleague who had been off due to stress for c. 1 month. They just deleted all emails and said if it was important they will send a follow up.

After being in a job ten years had about 3000 unread mostly sales spam tbh or all company circulars. The way outlook now splits out important and other is a blessing

3423 as of last count. Actually does bother me overly.

This is absolutely ridiculous and if someone I manage had that many unread I would be concerned

I have no unread emails. It would stress me out so much!

This. I couldn't do my job and wouldn't even have one of if I didn't read and action my emails!

None. I open them at set intervals throughout the day and action, file, snooze for action in a specific slot timetabled in the future or delete. Junk, anything that has been dealt with and anything I'm copied in on that I don't need to deal with is deleted

You nailed it @JimHalpertsWife! It felt scary to do, but it showed me how much email is just unnecessary. I have contemplated leaving an out of office message which says dont send me emails between x and x date when I am off, but was not quite brave enough. So now I have an OOO message which says I will be back on this day so please contact me after then. It seems to work great.

Honestly if you're given this advice you are so easily replaceable you should look for another job because you have zero security and either not particularly needed or not particularly valued.

Good Lord, those with thousands unread are making my teeth itch!

I have approx 80 but I have read them all and then marked as unread to stand out, they are either things I need to do / follow up on but at a later date.

None unread, three or four in the inbox which need actionjng. Rest deleted or auto-filed. I think some people need to work on their Outlook skills!

I have several thousand unread emails. Sometimes they arrive thick and fast such as a lunch break when I recieved 50. If I wanted an inbox 0, that would be take most of my time. I think reading and replying to emails in an average job takes about a third of the working hours, which I simply don't have.

Whereas if I read and actioned all the emails I received as they came in I wouldn't have any time left to do my actual job.

I'm also a zero- just leave any that are awaiting a reply, everything else is deleted or filed. I can't understand anyone working with that many unread and leaving a job with 1000's unread is awful - I've had to clear up after someone like that snd it was a nightmare.

I have 999+, I've only been in my role 6 months. There'll be nothing that needs actioning in there. Most just need deleting

But in order to know they don't need actioning you would need to quickly glance at every single one.

How have you folks cleared inbox when returning from maternity or sick leave?

I decide from the subject header whether it's worth opening/reading. Technically I'm not meant to do any work off the back of an email, it should all be a formal work request and go on a planner board.

I used to have around 3000. Plus I worked part time. I left.

About 1500 unread emails. I only read emails where I’m in the to box and ignore all that are cc only. I get well over 200 emails a day
and scan by subject to decide what to actually read.
My job is not measured by how quickly I respond to email or how close to zero my mailbox is. In my experience, anyone that needs my attention will message me on teams or call me. I can’t stand people who send emails that should be a message or a 2 min phone call so I don’t respond to them.