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.

Phoning is better. Most people worth dealing with have a phone number as part of their email signature.

@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.

How many emails do you get in a day?