In work, what's the reasonable amount of time to expect an email reply?

[Sparks46th]

I'm just fishing for a general consensus. One of the difficulties of covid is everyone is working from home, including all the partner and client organizations.

I work for the client, and we have consultants working for us. I find I am regularly sending emails along the lines of "when can we expect the report?", "Are you available for a project meeting?"

Assuming you don't get an out of office reply, what's the consensus view on how long you should wait for a reply before you send a reminder?

I don't want to be a dick, but I find some consultants very slow to respond, and weeks fly by in these communications.

If this is a problem and it sounds as if it is some guidelines are required so people know where they stand.

I have considered the idea of the phone call, but there a few limitations:

1. The people I'm contacting are sometimes in other countries
2. They're in external organizations.
3. With Covid, everyone is working at home, and I don't have their mobile numbers.
4. Lastly, I'd assumed (perhaps wrongly) that email is the standard form of communication (so it's written down) for work of normal urgency - I don't expect a reply to an email in 5 minutes, but I would expect a 1 to 2 day reply.

Email is killing productivity, frankly. I get hundreds a day at this point (most of them entirely trivial / unnecessary / informational only).

I've started seeing out of office messages that state "I will be out the office for 2 weeks, and will be deleting all messages received in the interim, upon my return. If it is urgent, please resend or contact me directly".

Many people's full time jobs at this point is managing the flow of email.

It depends very much on the culture of your organisation/industry. I work in an industry which demands fast response to client emails so 24 hours to reply would land me in hot water. Other organisations are much more relaxed about this.

I think also greater use of WhatsApp and text has changed the game a bit; super urgent stuff seems to have moved there where email is for more formal stuff.

I work for the client, and we have consultants working for us. I find I am regularly sending emails along the lines of "when can we expect the report?", "Are you available for a project meeting?"

I think the issue with these kind of questions is that they don't provide a deadline and there is nothing that forces a timely response, if someone is working with multiple tasks then they're going to prioritise the things with a deadline and the other things get put back.

Can you start setting a deadline/giving a time as standard as that then puts the onus on the other person to contact you if there is an issue, and if not then you can legitimately chase it up.

"When can we expect the report?" = "I need the report by Friday, let me know if there will be any issues with this"

"Are you available for a project meeting?" = "We need to schedule a project meeting. I am available at 9am Monday. Let me know your availability if that time doesn't suit."

I also think you need to be more clear.

In reference to meetings, set them and send an invitation but make sure there is a clear agenda so that they know what’s expected. A lot of people will decline if there is no info on there as they’ll assume their presence is not essential.

Usually I try to reply within a day, but expect people to make it clear if they need a response urgently.

Of course there are people whose every email is urgent, in which case I tend to leave them until they chase me for an answer.

Generally if you want faster replies, be polite and friendly and helpful when I have contacted you for something. If you make it a pain for me to deal with you, expect the same treatment back.

@maxelly

I have a strict rule where I reply to everything in my inbox (anything that needs a response, obviously not to junk/spam/reminders about the work kitchen etc) within 1 working day (annual leave etc excepting when I have an OOO on) - not always giving the person the answer or the work they wanted but acknowledging receipt and telling them how long it will take if I don't have it there and then. I expect the same from my team - it's just simple politeness IMO (and no, I don't think a pass-agg auto-reply saying 'I'm very busy don't expect me to respond to you' is the same thing at all despite what some of my colleagues think .

I don't care how many emails you get a day, it take 30 secs to bash out a 'This will take me a week or so, let me get back to you' type response to anyone waiting (you can even copy and paste it to multiple recipients if you like). It drives me mad when people think they're too important or 'senior' to do this. As a PP said junior or customer facing staff in particular may have pressure on them from all directions so leaving them to simply guess how long it'll take for the recipient to even acknowledge the existence of their question/problem is unacceptable really - I'd say that's even less cool than leaving a customer or your boss hanging, at least the latter knows they have some leverage over you ultimately whereas the poor junior staff just have to wait or chase you in a forelock tugging 'oh please mighty manager might you dain to consider my request' type way which isn't nice at all.

Again, I personally don't think that the answer to junior employee pressure is to whip them into a frenzy of feeling vulnerable. And I've seen junior employees exert aggressive pressure on their seniors because they demand their worries be handled disproportionately to the importance of the task.

When I say directly - I mean that I was personally aggressively attacked by a junior for not doing as he wanted when he wanted to the point where I had chronic stress and palpitations.

The answer isn't senior staff dancing attendance on junior staff's priorities.

It's :

• regular review of the business priorities so that staff know how to prioritise their own work and crunch points for others
• educating and empowering staff to do their jobs without depending on others
• providing staff with autonomy and responsibility that helps them contribute to the business - and includes offline time where they also can get on with their work without interruption

I'm sorry you work in a shit company, but I don't think your solutions are any better.

My staff all have an "offline day" a week where they aren't slaves to their email. Productivity has gone through the roof, and the service hasn't fallen over because people wait a little for non urgent emails to be answered.

my staff are pretty understanding of my needs and priorities, and they're pretty happy with my management (they have directly told me how much better life is under my direction than others and how much they appreciate what I do and my ability to prioritise matters of importance to the business).

with all due respect... people tell you what you want to hear

I put in the email subject in caps what is required from the person opening it for example: REVIEW REQUIRED: subject of email, I bullet point what they need to do in the body and give them a clear deadline to respond by and ask them if they have difficulties achieving this to contact me in the first instance.

@whetherpigshavewings

my staff are pretty understanding of my needs and priorities, and they're pretty happy with my management (they have directly told me how much better life is under my direction than others and how much they appreciate what I do and my ability to prioritise matters of importance to the business).

with all due respect... people tell you what you want to hear

Oh, I'm well aware that there'll be a group chat without me. And I'm aware that you have no obligation to believe me and think that I'm blowing smoke up my own arse.

But our work environment was literally toxic. Really stressful and depressing, and no one could see much of a future for the company. I was brought up from the ranks to improve things with the new CEO.

It's taken us a while, but staff have volunteered that they were ready to leave and it now feels like a different place to work. And we've recently come under external pressure - after we announced the difficulties at a team meeting, several of my staff voluntarily checked in that I was OK and offering lots of creative and intelligent practical assistance to the situation.

This is why I'm a passionate advocate of the practices we've put in place - and why I will passionately defend my right to prioritise my own emails.

Every single email I send i put in the title either for information only ( no response required). Or action required and a specific deadline

If no response by my deadline then I chase.

You need to be much more specific and proactive in managing the work and relationship

Do you not use messaging software?

I respond to phone calls and messages from messaging software normally within 2 hours.

Emails can take me days due to the amount of crap I receive.

Also you should arrange catch up meetings with consultants every 7-14 days in advance going months ahead if necessary.

Even if at the meeting there are no specific updates you get a chance to ask make small talk so you can get things like phone numbers, names of other people who could be helpful and find out where about in the world they will be in the next week.

Pick up the phone or as @RedMarauder says, messaging software.

Do you not use messaging software?

Internally yes, externally, it depends on the individual. Not everyone for example has Whatsapp.

On my graduate job I was told acknowledge within 24 hours and respond within 48 hours. Even if that response is 'I'll get this to you by X date', I've stuck to that and it seems to work well.

Now I work somewhere where emails are used a lot less and things like Teams and Slack are used. It's a lot more effective, although slightly annoying at times.

I've Slack, Teams, Signal and WhatsApp on laptops/phone.

It's a case of asking what someone uses and if I'm desperate to contact them, then I ensure I have the same messaging software.

Anyway if you start booking repeat meetings with them for updates ahead of time then you shouldn't need to message them or write emails asking for updates in between, as you are in effect giving them a deadline for a piece of work.

@thecatsthecats

It’s sounds like things were horrific where you work and now they’re better but that doesn’t make them good.

I’m so grateful I run my own business and don’t have to run things by a manager. I felt stressed out just reading your initial post.

" I don't care how many emails you get a day, it take 30 secs to bash out a 'This will take me a week or so, let me get back to you' type response to anyone waiting"

Erm. Like another poster I often get around 300 a day. So that would be 2.5 hours out of my day, not doing anything to actually progress the output people need from me but just being polite. Stuff that. It wouldn't help me or my team.

TheCats It's great that your system works for you, but I honestly don't think having an expectation that everyone replies to emails promptly (note I said reply, not agree/comply with) is whipping up anxieties or teaching people to not prioritize their work or indicative of a shitty culture. It's not the same thing at all as 'dancing attendance on junior staff's priorities' or always doing exactly what they want when they want it. I agree those things can be a problem, if the culture/business priorities are not right in other ways, and of course it's not healthy to reply to a basic/unimportant query with OMG urgent reply I will drop everything at 3am to get back to Tim's question about teabags type nonsense but that obviously wasn't what I was saying. If anything I think replying reasonably promptly to a junior member of staff's unimportant query with a 'thanks for the email, I'll look at it in due course and get back to you in a few days/weeks/months' is reassuring them that it's OK to have asked the question, it isn't urgent to resolve, and models good prioritization to them, whilst being polite and supportive so if they are worried about it (even if unreasonably - bearing in mind if someone is anxious there's always a bigger picture than just what's in the immediate picture/email in front of you) they know they can always come back to me - I see that as good management not being submissive or over-compliant ... I have had to have the odd chat to a member of staff over the years about too much dependence on me/boundaries of how many emails they send or calls they make, but I think that's just a symptom of a bigger issue with that individual and their confidence/performance/attitude rather than a problem I've created for myself by replying to my emails too promptly - if anything with that kind of person I find ignoring or avoiding replying to them just creates 100 times more traffic anyway!

As a PP said most teams/organisations use a 'for information only/no response required' type tagging system and so that's fine, if I was going to send a 'I'm letting you know about this but I know it's not a problem, you don't need to reply' type email to my manager I use those tags as do my team, so it's not the case that anyone needs to frenziedly acknowledge one another back and forth all day long.

But anyway, it doesn't sound as though what you are talking about (a considered system of non-replying within a team that everyone signed up to and agrees with) is the case for OP, she is the customer in this situation, she feels her request is important and she's entitled to expect a response whether or not the person she's emailing thinks it's a priority to get back to her or not...

All those saying she should call not email, maybe it's the introvert in me but I don't get this. A call takes up so much more of everyone's time and effort than an email, can interrupt someone while they're doing other important tasks (or you end up doing that irritating 'phone tag' thing back and forth all day) whereas an email can be read at the person's leisure, plus if it's complicated/detailed information or attachments are required you need to then send an email afterwards anyway so doubling up the effort - IMO either something is a priority and you should know to deal with it without being called, or it's not and in which case surely spending 10 mins talking about it on the phone is just a waste of time? Obviously I do use the phone but I save it for things where there's an actual benefit to talking something through (to share ideas, opinions, ask questions, say things that are better not put in writing ), but for most things I'd personally far rather get an email first and call back if I need to rather than being 'ambushed' with requests via phone...

@eurochick

" I don't care how many emails you get a day, it take 30 secs to bash out a 'This will take me a week or so, let me get back to you' type response to anyone waiting"

Erm. Like another poster I often get around 300 a day. So that would be 2.5 hours out of my day, not doing anything to actually progress the output people need from me but just being polite. Stuff that. It wouldn't help me or my team.

Only if all 300 are actually requests for work/questions? If which case you are really quite busy and have bigger problems that your email inbox

Otherwise as I clearly said, ignore the spam, for info, thanks, replues all etc, any ones that don't need a reply, and reply promptly to the ones that do? Obviously, if everyone replied to every email you'd enter an infinity loop of 'can you do this?' 'thanks for the email - yes' 'thanks for the response' 'thanks for the thanks for the response' ad infinitum!

I would generally reply the same day if it's a short question like "when can I expect the report by". BUT I would say that emails about little stuff like this and "are you free for a meeting?" are really annoying. If you want or need the report by a certain date then specify that when you contract out the work and if you're trying to arrange a meeting then pick up the phone so it doesn't lead to a trail of emails back n forth trying to find a mutually convenient time.
I have 2 main Clients, one sends hardly any emails as they call and use Teams messages. The other sends so many i can barely read them and do my day job, and don't get me started on the requests that require actioning in a couple of hours which have been sitting in their inbox for days already!!

@maxelly the point of calling, or if you are in the same building going up to talk to someone, is to make sure they deal with your issue.

Yes you are interrupting them but that's the entire point.

And it works better in teams/projects of introverted people as you are likely the only one of few doing it. I learnt that from watching senior managers/CEOs in action when I was a junior employee. That's why having update meetings booked in advanced are useful as you can make small talk before signing off if there are no updates.

Another one here with 300 action emails a day. Its quite typical in a professional job

24 hours