Rant/PSA - Email

[ahurtt]

Email is a fantastic tool for ensuring that your message is promptly delivered to a large audience of recipients simultaneously. It is not so great at ensuring prompt receipt of said message. Therefore it is fallacious to rely on email as an urgent means of communication by which to elicit prompt action. That is all.

 

[SandEagle]

butthurt?

 

[DrPizza]

Yep. There are about a dozen people I know of who think that I must check my email every 5 minutes at work. Sorry, I check it at 7:30 am, at lunch time, and at 3pm if you're lucky.

 

[dfuze]

Huh? first sentence you say it's prompt, then in second you say its not prompt

 

[kranky]

Yep. There are about a dozen people I know of who think that I must check my email every 5 minutes at work. Sorry, I check it at 7:30 am, at lunch time, and at 3pm if you're lucky.

That's because it's what THEY do.

 

[xSauronx]

Yep. There are about a dozen people I know of who think that I must check my email every 5 minutes at work. Sorry, I check it at 7:30 am, at lunch time, and at 3pm if you're lucky.

that's fine, hell, sometimes i wish people checked it that often.

i know "IT people" at school who barely check it more than once during the week.

im a nerd, with a blackberry, i can be had via email all the time, but i know thats not how most people deal with it

 

[ahurtt]

Huh? first sentence you say it's prompt, then in second you say its not prompt

I'm guessing you must be a manager.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Email is critical in this day and age. I agree it shouldn't be used to communicate something urgent that requires attention immediately, but when I was a manager, I'd have to get on my employees about checking their email more frequently. I told them that in their jobs (they were desktop support/server admins), email was crucial and my expectation was that they would check email at least once per hour.

 

[Anubis]

at work i never close outlook and it just yells at me when i get email, which is way to often IMO

at home i check it twice a day, before i go to work, and when i come home from work

 

[xSauronx]

Email is critical in this day and age. I agree it shouldn't be used to communicate something urgent that requires attention immediately, but when I was a manager, I'd have to get on my employees about checking their email more frequently. I told them that in their jobs (they were desktop support/server admins), email was crucial and my expectation was that they would check email at least once per hour.

yeah, IT people should be using email regularly. at work, anyone who uses groupwise gets notification popups with new emails. its annoying sometimes, but it ensures you know youve gotten an email.

the CC i went to made it clear that all school information was passed on to your school email address, that you could use any of hundreds of pcs on campus to check your email, and that you can forward the school email anywhere you like.

most people barely ever looked at it. email is such a great way to communicate, and if you have a internet access at home, theres not really a good excuse not to be checking your email at least once a day.

 

[alkemyst]

Yep. There are about a dozen people I know of who think that I must check my email every 5 minutes at work. Sorry, I check it at 7:30 am, at lunch time, and at 3pm if you're lucky.

aren't you just a teacher though?

In corporate america one is expected to keep up on email ESP if you have been given a blackberry/mobile device.

Like it or not most are just worker bees and need to pay fucking attention to it.

 

[ahurtt]

aren't you just a teacher though?

In corporate america one is expected to keep up on email ESP if you have been given a blackberry/mobile device.

Like it or not most are just worker bees and need to pay fucking attention to it.

The problem is paying attention to it means what? How often must one be checking email to be considered paying attention to it? Bottom line is, if you need something done in less than an hours time frame, email is not the most active way to ensure that it gets done. Shit happens...servers lag and crash, people have meetings and are unavailable, mailboxes fill up, the work day ends at 5:00 and you decide at 4:58 that you need something done and so send an email to somebody who last checked their email at 4:55 before leaving for the day, etc...If it's really that important to have something promptly done by a subordinate it is YOUR responsibility to ensure that the message is not only delivered but also RECEIVED and ACKNOWLEDGED. Otherwise if it doesn't get done it's nobody's fault but your own for relying on a passive means of communication to elicit an urgent and immediate response. If you have trouble interacting with people on a live person to person basis to the point where you shun personal interaction (when you sit in an office less than 100 feet away from the person) you don't belong in management.

 

[Meghan54]

Huh? first sentence you say it's prompt, then in second you say its not prompt

Guess reading comprehension isn't your strong suit, eh? Or possibly English isn't your native language.

The prompt in the first sentence referenced DELIVERY, such as to your email inbox.

The prompt in the second sentence referenced READING said email, understandably poorly described by the OP's use of receipt which was intended to describe the recipient reading the email, which isn't always as prompt as the inbox receiving said email.

 

[Connoisseur]

The problem is paying attention to it means what? How often must one be checking email to be considered paying attention to it? Bottom line is, if you need something done in less than an hours time frame, email is not the most active way to ensure that it gets done. Shit happens...servers lag and crash, people have meetings and are unavailable, mailboxes fill up, the work day ends at 5:00 and you decide at 4:58 that you need something done and so send an email to somebody who last checked their email at 4:55 before leaving for the day, etc...If it's really that important to have something promptly done by a subordinate it is YOUR responsibility to ensure that the message is not only delivered but also RECEIVED and ACKNOWLEDGED. Otherwise if it doesn't get done it's nobody's fault but your own for relying on a passive means of communication to elicit an urgent and immediate response. If you have trouble interacting with people on a live person to person basis to the point where you shun personal interaction (when you sit in an office less than 100 feet away from the person) you don't belong in management.

yeah dunno what field you're in, but as the previous poster said: corporate america is different. I've gotten yelled at for not responding to an email within 10-15 minutes. That's about the leeway you're generally given for a standard email. Now if it has an "Important" flag.... may God have mercy on you if you don't respond to the almighty "Important" flag. My blackberry is my ball and chain. On one hand, i get a free phone with unlimited data/internet (saves me the $100 a month). On the other hand, i'm required to respond as long as i'm awake.

 

[ahurtt]

Guess reading comprehension isn't your strong suit, eh? Or possibly English isn't your native language.

The prompt in the first sentence referenced DELIVERY, such as to your email inbox.

The prompt in the second sentence referenced READING said email, understandably poorly described by the OP's use of receipt which was intended to describe the recipient reading the email, which isn't always as prompt as the inbox receiving said email.

Sort of...I will define receipt as the realization by the intended recipient of the presence of a message in their inbox. Whether or not they read it at that point is a different matter. You stand a better chance of having them read it immediately upon receipt if you flag it as urgent. But even flagging it as urgent cannot ensure the recipient is even aware of the fact that the email has arrived in their inbox. Maybe the recipient is in a meeting, taking a shit, at lunch, left for the day, on vacation, busy planning your gruesome murder, otherwise occupied with some other frivolous task assigned them by some other pencil dick...who knows? There are any number of reasons that a recipient might not immediately receive an email upon its delivery so if it's really that important, that email needs to be followed up by an active verbal message.

 

[alkemyst]

The problem is paying attention to it means what? How often must one be checking email to be considered paying attention to it? Bottom line is, if you need something done in less than an hours time frame, email is not the most active way to ensure that it gets done. Shit happens...servers lag and crash, people have meetings and are unavailable, mailboxes fill up, the work day ends at 5:00 and you decide at 4:58 that you need something done and so send an email to somebody who last checked their email at 4:55 before leaving for the day, etc...If it's really that important to have something promptly done by a subordinate it is YOUR responsibility to ensure that the message is not only delivered but also RECEIVED and ACKNOWLEDGED. Otherwise if it doesn't get done it's nobody's fault but your own for relying on a passive means of communication to elicit an urgent and immediate response. If you have trouble interacting with people on a live person to person basis to the point where you shun personal interaction (when you sit in an office less than 100 feet away from the person) you don't belong in management.

I mentioned corporate america...you can believe what you want.

If you are more likely to be fragging trolls in WoW, then they best try and get you on the phone.

 

[Fear No Evil]

Yep. There are about a dozen people I know of who think that I must check my email every 5 minutes at work. Sorry, I check it at 7:30 am, at lunch time, and at 3pm if you're lucky.

Where do you work? An amish farm?

 

[JS80]

If it's urgent you give me a call after you send the email or you come in my office. Or send as high importance.

 

[Anubis]

Where do you work? An amish farm?

Doc is a HS teacher

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

When I worked at the University, other departments always got their shorts in a bunch because I checked email exactly once a day when I placed orders. I was never in the office other than to place an order or work on the recipe data base.

I was readily available by phone but no one ever called because, aside from food service, no other department on campus EVER answered their phone in person. Any time you call any department on campus it automatically goes to voice mail and they call you back when they feel like it.

 

[sourceninja]

yeah, IT people should be using email regularly. at work, anyone who uses groupwise gets notification popups with new emails. its annoying sometimes, but it ensures you know youve gotten an email.

the CC i went to made it clear that all school information was passed on to your school email address, that you could use any of hundreds of pcs on campus to check your email, and that you can forward the school email anywhere you like.

most people barely ever looked at it. email is such a great way to communicate, and if you have a internet access at home, theres not really a good excuse not to be checking your email at least once a day.

I get close to 250 real emails a day (and who knows how many spam get's filtered). Of those 250, probably 25 of them are 'urgent'.

I have way too much to do then read that many emails every single day. If it was truly urgent they can call my phone, send me a IM, call the help desk to assign me a ticket, open their own ticket and request me, or walk down to my office. It would be impossible to write software and take a break every 5 minutes to check my email. I check it first thing in the morning for 30 minutes. Then I work until lunch, then another 30 minutes of email, then I work until the end of the day.

If they are lucky I'll check my email at home or at lunch via my iphone.

 

[alkemyst]

I think many of us get 100-200+ emails at home. Again it's about while on the job vs not. I don't go through all my personal email most days. I skim it a bit always though.

In the office and while even out I am sort of on the hook to monitor it since I carry a mobile device. Now after-hours the unwritten rule here is to call if you have a fire to put out...during the day people have been terminated for neglecting emails.

 

[dfuze]

I'm guessing you must be a manager.

Nah, but I do know what you mean. Send an email here at work and some people get it in 5 seconds, others in 5+ minutes

 

[Linflas]

What I always find amusing is that the people that bitch most about people not checking and responding to emails are generally the same folks whose inboxes are black holes that emails are delivered to and never responded to.

 

[mcvickj]

I have Thunderbird set to check my messages every 5 minutes. Send me an e-mail. That way I can determine if it requires immediate action or if it can wait until I am done with my current task. Hate it when people call or show up in person for something that isn't urgent.