To expect people in the workplace to respond to emails?

[OnTheNiceishList]

AIBU to expect people I correspond with, try to do business with, to respond to emails? What is an acceptable turnaround time?

Scenario A: trying to organise a function in a venue. The person responsible for organising the events is taking a week to respond to questions and requests. In the end I had to drive over to see if they still worked there as no response in 2 weeks. No out of office. I turned up and dealt with it in person. I’m really not demanding. I only wanted to book a date and pay a deposit!

Scenario B: I have to go on a course. I’ve done 95% of it, and only have to attend 1 hour of a week long course. I got bombarded with emails about the whole thing so I emailed the tutor a week ago to say “just to clarify I’m not coming to the whole thing, just this session”. No out of office reply. The course started today, and I’ve not turned up 🤷 I used the other contact over the weekend. I didn’t expect a response but surely they logged in to see if any sickness or urgent participant emails this morning?

Scenario C: doing a favour for my local church group. I’m giving up a lot of my time to organise and facilitate it. There are a couple of critical things I need to do it. I’m the one driving over, lugging the stuff, setting it up etc. so why is it so hard to answer a WhatsApp message and only do it a week later?

It is just me? I don’t expect immediate responses but I think 48 hours for a message and 3 days for an email is not too much to ask.

These people are working for organisations. If I was the manager I’d be pissed off at them.

The first one I agree is too long, if someone is trying to give you business, book and pay a deposit then that ought to be responded to within 24 hours.

The second one I don’t get - you said you weren’t coming to all of a course then got annoyed that the course started without you today without an email about it? I’m not sure why you would get an email response to your clarification nor why you’d expect to hear from the course provider when you don’t then up to a course you weren’t planning to take in full?

The third is annoying but reasonable. People are busy, they leave WhatsApps until they have a chance to reply and it’s easy to forget or have life get in the way. I would send a little nudge or just say “if I don’t find out x by y date then you can’t come or won’t be included in lunch plans/have your stuff lugged over/whatever”

Sorry, B not clear.

I did a qualification. I was sick for one of the practicals, so they enrolled me onto another course to finish it off. I’ve received emails that suggest I’m expected on the whole thing, so I sent the tutor an email to clarify. No response.

Have you tried picking up a phone and ringing them instead of emailing then if necessary just send a confirmatory email afterwards?

similar set up

i picked up the phone after a week - please leave a message …. But no answerphone slot to speak into …..

If it’s urgent or time bound - email is not going to work. Pick up the phone or arrange a teams call in their diary to discuss and agree a way forward.

Also make sure you’re not putting people you want a response from in CC. If I’m in CC - I ignore that entirely.

For Scenario a I would definitly have phoned instead of driving over.
For Scenario B, I wouldn't have expected a response.

But that is probably the standard joining pack. they are unlikely to send a tailored joining pack just for you. You know what session you need to attend. What else is there to say?

As for the WhatsApp, why not call instead?

I have three email addresses, personal, work and council. I have WhatsApp, Facebook, LinkedIn and two mobiles plus a desk phone. I get maybe 200 emails per day. I only respond to those that actually need my input.

But I wouldn't expect that to be dealt with by the tutor. The tutor will just be a trainer contracted by the training organisation to deliver the content. The actual attendance admin will be dealt with by the organisation - I doubt the trainer cares if you show up or not, providing they get paid.....

"It is just me? I don’t expect immediate responses but I think 48 hours for a message and 3 days for an email is not too much to ask."

I am very envious of your workload if you are able to operate to this turnaround. I'd say it's very unlikely that the person you have emailed has taken pleasure in not responding to you. It is likely that they are overworked and struggling as sadly seems the accepted norm these days in my experience.

If I prioritised replying to emails, alongside the meetings I have to attend, I would never get anything else done, and I'm not convinced I'd get through the emails!

YANBU to expect some sort of response. However, if someone does not respond, then a phone call or talking in person should be the next step.

I agree, and it's infuriating. I volunteer for a non profit organization, and much of my role involves project management. There are some people I work with - people who are highly successful business owners - who it's like getting blood from a stone to get a response from.

I'm an electrician, if I'm busy I don't reply at all, pretty standard in the trades.

Phone calls can usually sort out in 5 minutes issues that would otherwise be drawn out over weeks via multiple emails.
An example of this was trying to book a hotel for a wedding, and getting the wedding party preferred rate. I was trying to do it all by email as the hotel was in a different country and I didn't have international calling on my mobile. Painful, tedious process until I used my husband's phone (he has the correct plan) to call the hotel, and got it all booked in one call lasting about 5 minutes.
I appreciate in the OP that there may have been no phone number available in some scenarios. I do think the shift to electronic communication, which is supposed to simplify life, does not always achieve this.

Yes i always phone

Scenario 4.

Tried to book a treatment. Went into website, tried to book online. Wouldn’t accept my voucher. Called them up, left 2 messages over a week. Called me back today, told me that I need to book online. I said there’s nowhere for the voucher, they said there was. Went online again (why can’t they just do it on the phone) not able to use voucher, called them back and they eventually agreed to do it over the phone.

Honestly, the reason why I try to do things online or via email is because many people just don’t answer the phone. It goes straight to voicemail, then you are to’ing and fro’ing for a week.

Are you replying to automatically generated emails rather than to an individual business/personal account? Usually course information is sent that way and possibly the events information was an advert sent to you? In which case you would not receive a response. It will normally advise you of this and offer a web link but perhaps you overlooked it.

You can’t get a decent answer on here anymore. It’s just full of obtuse people that would say and feel the exact same thing as you in real life if you were sat in an office together but cannot bear to do so on MN for some weird reason! Of course it’s rude, like you, I would be expected to respond to emails in a timely fashion. There isn’t always a telephone number for people these days as well. I think the ones saying ‘pick up the phone’ might have missed the part where you actually drove over to get something sorted. We’re living in a digital age and an email should be more that suffice. I agree with you. I’m fed up of ringing services that ask you to leave a voicemail and then they don’t get back to you. And to the self employed people that don’t send a quick message to say they’re full then they’re just plain rude IMO, just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.

Are you asking OP if she’s thick? You would have to be be pretty thick to think this is how to email someone. She did specify that she emailed the tutor so surely she understands how emails work.

I think the first scenario should have been responded to, and in your shoes I'd have taken my business elsewhere.
The second scenario seems to be you telling them you're not attending the full course, which, although nice to have, doesn't require a response.
The third situation is unclear. Did you actually ask anything or do you just want recognition for your time and effort. Again, nice to have a response, but clearly the person is busy. Maybe rethink how much you want to commit to this in future.

Some people are rude, but most are just very busy. You aren't the only person contacting them, and they are likely prioritising tasks. Or maybe they're off sick/got family issues etc (putting an out of office email response on isn't mandatory).

I get many, many emails in my job role. I could spend all day just responding to those, but I'd never get any work done. I have to prioritise, and often responding to emails is away down the list. The important ones that require a reply will be responded to though.

Not necessarily. It's often driven by a CRM system - the system knows who the tutor is, who the attendees are and sends the email "from" the tutor. Partly to outwit anti-spam, and also because we know people are more likely to engage with emails they perceive as personally directed to them. But in reality, the tutor will usually either ignore any replies (because they aren't contracted to manage the admin) or send them on to the training company for a response.

I think the ones saying ‘pick up the phone’ might have missed the part where you actually drove over to get something sorted.

No, I'm saying pick up the phone instead of taking however much time it takes to drive somewhere unnecessarily!

Many times you need a record of what has been discussed and decided, which is where emails are particularly helpful, but only if people are willing to respond.

@OnTheNiceishList i'm with you, mostly

I can accept that people who don't need the work won't reply - I had this experience trying to book a handyman job recently - but for people who are actually working for an organisation, it's a really bad reputation

For scenario A, I wouldn't want to drive over to that place and make the booking. I would think they weren't efficient enough to handle an event if they don't reply to phone messages or emails in two weeks.

For scenario B, I suspect the tutor is not the person to tell? But I don't know. You would think that it would be somebody's job to reply to you and just politely say "yes we are aware of that".

For scenario C, it would certainly put me off volunteering but I no longer do that anyway

There's definitely a complete lack of efficiency going on and out of office messages seem to have gone out of fashion. I don't understand why. It's probably just part of the "can't be bothereditis" that is so prevalent at the moment.