Long story short. Wednesday at 9pm I receive an email asking if I'm available to do some training in the middle of June. I replied Friday morning around 7:30am when I got into my office apologizing for the late reply and that I was available.

No response from the sender. However by noon, my department head is all on my shit about my late response. Somehow it made it to him, whether it was said nonchalantly or really tripping out, he found out about it. We have one person on vacation and another on bereavement due to his mother's passing, both are my back ups and vice versa so I had to take on their workload.

So in all honesty, I just didn't open up my outlook (it actually didn't even cross my mind I just wanted to get my tasks done) and the email didn't make it to my droid, some emails slip through the cracks.

It felt great to be disconnected and get a lot of my work and my co-worker's work out of the way so at least I didn't have to come in yesterday or today.

My question to you is, what is an appropriate response time for inquiries and non-emergency emails?

I strive for 24 hours or less. Sometimes (such as this incident) it didn't happen.

 

24 hours usually if it is business related

 

Outlook is what mostly keeps me from getting to my important tasks...even when I've decided to "disconnect" I still give it a quick once over before leaving at the end of the day to make sure nothing else should take priority. To someone anal...late Wednesday to early Friday is still a 2 day delay.

 

WAY after COB Wednesday. And you respond before 8 AM on Friday. For a training date weeks away.

Not only is that not a late or slow reply, but fuck them for saying so.

Corporate chicken shit is what that is.


You need a faster response, pick up the damn telephone and call me.

 

This!!!!

After reluctantly using a Blackberry for three months I finally shut it off. It's been off for almost eight months now.







Terry

 

I sometimes go days between checking e-mails.

 

+1

I say this everytime someone cracks a whiny response to why I don't reply fast enough to e-mails. Maybe because I have more work than they do. Not only is e-mailing back and forth small and stupid questions a waste of my time, it can easily be a done deal with a 2 minute phone call.

The amount of inefficiency in corporate/government folks at my workplace is a bit amazing at times.

 

Thanks everyone. I didn't think I was completely in the wrong.

Considering all the different avenues to get a hold of me not to mention my office line, my cell phone, even my facebook for fucks sake. She went above me (I don't know if she was pissed or was just curious why I haven't responded) and now I look irresponsible.

 

Oh yeah still no response from the sender and I didn't see her on Friday. Maybe I should contact our VP to see if everything is okay?

 

I need somebody to respond within 24 hours, I call, which is the normal way of doing things in my business.

Oh, and I have NOT yet moved to a "smart" or data phone nor set up my Razr for e-mail, so everyone knows I'm NOT looking at e-mails unless I'm working from a desk.
She's probably going to e-mail you on Monday or Tuesday-- it's not like training dates a few weeks away are urgent.

 

email sucks.

 

In a previous life, I told anyone who emailed me and did not get a response within an hour to CALL ME. Do not write further emails asking 'Did you get this?' 'Did you see this?'

 

:ring:, Hello? I just sent you an email. ?

or
:ring:, Hello? Did you get the email I just sent? No. You didn't!?! Send it again. Ok. :click:

 

BTW, I worked at a place where the owner would get pissed if I didn't return his drunken tirades that he would send out at 2AM.

 

Was he an Admiral?

 

Nope, just an asshole.

 

Forward the email thread to your department head, and ask if this was the email thread in question that you weren't 'prompt' in responding to, apologize for the delay and explain how you've been busy covering for 2 coworkers who have been out of the office and did not have a chance to check email all day thursday.

 

Hapa, just out of curiosity, was the email marked "urgent" (the red exclamation point) or was something like "PLEASE RESPOND ASAP" in the subject line?

If not, fuck 'em... They need immediate response, they should have called you.

 

1 business day max for business related emails...

 

You know it. I doubt she stopped all the presses waiting for me to respond. I didn't realize I put a one day hold on her life.

Yeah that has been done. I think he was just blowing off some steam over the events that have occurred. It'll be a dead issue in the grand scheme of things.

It definitely didn't Jefford. Guess it really was urgent though for it to be made a big stink.

That's the goal. My head was just spinning all week and Thursday didn't get any outlook love.

 

You received the e-mail at 9 PM on Wednesday. If you weren't "on the clock" at 9 PM, I wouldn't consider receipt of that e-mail until the start of business.

If we say that's roughly 8 AM Thursday, a response at 7:30 AM Friday is completely reasonable in my opinion.

I agree with others that if an urgent response is needed other communication should be used (aka, pick up the phone).

 

As others have said, 24 hours or pick up the phone. If it's urgent and needs a response, put it in the subject line. Nonetheless, people too lazy to call shouldn't get mad about a delayed email respose.

 

This reflects how I feel to a freakin T.

I'm going to update all of you on how this goes the next few days. This will die down eventually, but knowing workplace drama it's going to be an issue for a bit.

 

It really depends on who is sending it.

Plus, where I work, there is no COB. I get emails at all times of day and all hours of the night. There is no excuse to not answer, including being too busy. Some of you guys don't understand how it is in some places, especially in NYC. They could give a fuck about your reasons, excuses, or appropriations. They want responses.

Again, this is assuming someone important is emailing me. If it's some admin bullshit, they can wait.

 

I would have told your department head to back to fuck off and while their at it, to never contact you with bullshit again.

 

So I received a response at 9am this morning.

"Sorry I've been so busy, I will send you the exact dates soon"

I almost blew my top...... Pot calling the kettle much? Department head making a mountain out of a molehill?

 

"Sorry, that response is unacceptable."

 

Tuesday-- told you so.

Dept "head" needs to pull head out of own rear to read a printout of this thread.

Also, did the training person specifically complain about you, or just make a comment which the dept head ran with?
If the training person did complain, you should complain right back about the delay in response time.

 

I'll go with the latter. "It was probably like, oh I emailed him about this training in June on Wednesday, can you get ahold of him for me?"

 

Yep, sometimes we forget that NYC is the center of the universe. If somebody emails me at 2am expecting a response, they can wait until I get to work. Whether it be a boss, manager, impatient NYer, or anybody.

 

No way in hell I'm interrupting my sleep to reply to emails.

 

i say the more responsive the better. Depends on who, and if you need to impress them, but I try to respond quickly. I usually work odd hours, so I'll email people at weird hours. I don't expect a response, but at least by the next day. If it's just something quick and informal, usually within half a business day, so if it's in the first half of the day, I'd want something back by COB, if it's second half of the day, maybe sometime early the next day.

I don't think most people would chastise someone over their response time like you're describing, so I can see how that would be annoying, but at the same time, I remember at my old company certain people became notorious for being unresponsive, and it definitely didn't reflect well on them.

 

 

I'm not saying I disagree with you. I think it's insane as well, but unfortunately the response you just gave could very well leave you looking for another job. The work is more important than a night's sleep to most people here, we work into the late hours and are on call almost 24/7. This is how large NYC law firms work. It's part of the reason so many people don't last in NYC.

 

Life > work.


IMO, of course.

 

If only everyone thought the same way you do, my life would be much easier.

One of the attorney's in my office was recently in the hospital with a staph infection. The lead partner on the case was calling him and asking him work related questions while he was laying on the hospital bed.

 

That's shitty. For both, I can see each side.

 

So if you're a deep sleeper get an email at 2AM. Reply when you wake up at 5AM, that's considered unacceptable?

 

This +1000000

There are 4 ways of communication @ my company.

Email - you'll get a response whenever, days or weeks. If you send it here and it was important, you fucked up.

Skype/IM - You'll get a response in a cpl min if I'm at my desk - by COB otherwise.

Phone - If you must have info now.

In Person - Walk your fat ass over to me and talk to me if you need an answer.

 

i'm a little compulsive in responding to all my emails. Or I should say emails stay in my inbox until they are processed, and I hate having a cluttered inbox. Once the email has been dealt with, they get moved to an appropriate folder. Sometimes responding quickly isnt always the best thing to do though.