I’ve been frustrated lately by email. Not how much email I receive (although that can be overwhelming) but how some people take days, if not weeks to reply to a message. I just don’t understand how people can ignore a message…it seems rude. It’s like you’re talking to someone and they aren’t paying any attention to you. We all know that’s rude. Why isn’t it the same for email?
A couple years ago, I did a customer service project for a client and we conducted focus groups about the appropriate response time for email. Back then, 24 hours was considered appropriate. So, in my frustration, I did a Google search to see what’s considered the appropriate response time for email in today’s market. Again, 24 hours popped up as what’s considered customary.
But in my research, I ran across this 2006 post from business blogger Lawrence Salberg. It might be a couple years old…but it’s on the money…”Your response time indicates your maturity level.”
Now some of you might be saying that’s just crazy talk. You get a lot of email and it takes time to reply to all of it. True – but every day, every time? I’m not buying it.
People who get a lot of email need to find some way to prioritize it. It might be by person (answer the boss first) or by project (tomorrow’s deadline over next week’s) or by subject (strategy session feedback versus cake in break room). I’ve seen people respond immediately about drinks after work or party favors and then sit on questions about accounts payable or contracts.
Everyone needs to find a system that works – really works – for them and the people they exchange emails with. The last thing you want to be in today’s workplace is email immature.
William says
I’m not sure where my sympathy lies. The fact that I’m posting a response doesn’t make me the patron saint of email:
1) The truth is that it is too easy to send an email (especially a cold-contact one) and the best thing is to sometimes “not engage”.
2) Email is more voluminous than ever. Here is a stat from ’06 http://is.gd/1Wpp
3) Dare I say we (in general) are not very good at keeping the recipient in mind when we craft our email.
So, I understand the disappointment, but there something we can all do about…
Lawrence Salberg says
Gee, did I say that way back when? I guess so. Feels weird hearing someone else call my post “old”. Now, I feel old, too. Ha ha.
Seriously, you make an excellent point here about the frustration felt by those waiting for the reply (something I didn’t cover in my post). Even better though, I think, is your focus on business email that goes unanswered while “workers” rush to reply to social emails.
I think we are all guilty of doing it to others. While my post was really more about waiting forever to hear back from friends, you are very right that the real problem lies in the workplace. The rule of thumb seems to be, “if you can be ignored, you will be ignored”. Thus, emails from supervisors and good friends are replied to, but an email from another department that just needs some information might get bounced around or ignored for weeks unless they have a real “take charge” department head who will take up the case and get it elevated to your department head to get some kind of a response.
Which is kind of nuts when we have bosses basically telling employees to do their job and communicate with other departments.
Incidentally, I’ve since sworn off email for social aspects (there’s a post about it somewhere on them thar blog you referenced already), and it is going actually pretty good so far. Mostly thanks to Facebook, though.