#WorkEmails #Communication #EmailEtiquette
Do you know why some people at work don’t respond to emails? 📧 It can be frustrating and confusing when you send out important work emails and receive no response. In a professional setting, effective communication through email is crucial for productivity and collaboration. So, why do some people choose not to respond to emails at work? Let’s explore some possible reasons and how to improve email response rates in the workplace.
## Lack of Clarity and Specificity
One common reason for lack of response to work emails could be the lack of clarity and specificity in the initial message. If your email is not clear, well-structured, or contains vague requests, it’s more likely to be ignored or overlooked. Before hitting “send,” ask yourself if your message is concise, to the point, and easy to understand.
### Example:
Subject: Meeting
Unclear and vague: “We need to meet about the project.”
Clarity and specificity: “Can we schedule a team meeting on Thursday at 10 am to discuss the project timeline and deliverables?”
## Overwhelmed Inbox
In today’s fast-paced work environment, it’s not uncommon for professionals to receive a high volume of emails daily. This can lead to important messages getting buried in the inbox, resulting in unintentional non-responses. If your email is not urgent or time-sensitive, consider following up in person or through a quick chat to ensure your message gets the attention it deserves.
### Example:
“Hi, I just wanted to follow up on the email I sent last week regarding the client presentation. Do you have a few minutes to discuss it in person?”
## Lack of Accountability
Some individuals may choose not to respond to work emails due to a lack of accountability or taking ownership of their responsibilities. This can be especially frustrating if it’s a recurring behavior. Setting clear expectations for email responsiveness within the team or department can help address this issue.
### Example:
“Team, let’s aim to acknowledge non-urgent emails within 24 hours and provide a timeline for addressing the request or query.”
## Miscommunication or Misunderstanding
Miscommunication or misunderstanding of the content in the email can also lead to non-responses. If your message requires a specific action or response, clearly outline the next steps or expectations to avoid any confusion.
### Example:
“Please review the attached document and provide your feedback by Friday. Let me know if you need any further information or clarification.”
## Workload and Prioritization
Sometimes, the lack of response to work emails can be attributed to a heavy workload and the need to prioritize tasks. Individuals may inadvertently overlook or delay responding to non-urgent emails when juggling multiple projects and deadlines. Understanding and respectful of your colleagues’ workload can go a long way in improving email responsiveness.
### Example:
“Hey, I understand you’re swamped with the project deadline approaching. When you get a chance, could you please review my email from yesterday and let me know your thoughts?”
## Personal Preferences and Communication Style
Lastly, personal preferences and communication style could influence email responsiveness. Some individuals may prefer face-to-face interactions or phone calls over email communication. Understanding and accommodating different communication preferences can help bridge the gap and ensure effective collaboration.
### Example:
“Hi, I noticed you prefer discussing complex topics in person. Let’s schedule a brief meeting to go over the details.”
In conclusion, non-responses to work emails can stem from a variety of reasons, including lack of clarity, overwhelming inboxes, lack of accountability, miscommunication, workload prioritization, and personal communication preferences. By understanding these factors and taking proactive measures to improve email communication, you can enhance productivity and streamline collaboration in the workplace. Remember, effective communication is key to a successful and efficient work environment.
I’m sure the Japanese have a word for it because they have a word for everything but I know the feeling friend. I hate being ignored. It feels disrespectful. It’s hurtful.
But that’s business. Especially American business.
You might have sent it to too many people. It could be a tragedy-of-the-commons problem: everyone assumed someone else would look into it and respond. I would try again to a single person.
The place I work has a concept – to respond or redirect. It is a good culture. Not a lot of people do it – many people think it is the persons responsibility who is asking the question to identify who to ask the question. Hence you get ignored. But also sometimes you may have hit a priority wall – where your question is of no priority and gets pushed down and down until it is lost.
I try to respond to every email within a day. But some days I get a lot of emails and really emailing is secondary to my job so it isn’t a priority.
Yes there’s a specific department where I work that routinely ignore my emails. I tend to have to start copying Senior leaders before I get a response or re-send the emails with “following up on previous email with regard to —-“.
I hate these people because, it gets to the point that I just start scheduling meetings with them for stuff that could be an email.
As to why they don’t respond maybe :
🤷🏽♀️
Don’t know the answer
Prioritize workload/ slow respond to extraneous communication
Emails are abused these days. Some people are great at reading and sorting emails. I find them cumbersome to read through. So much not applicable to me, but sometimes it takes a bit to figure that out. Or someone asks a question, but doesn’t provide context or too much information.
In your case, it is good to put key expectations of the email and from who. If important, followup with a call or instant message.
It depends on the email that you are sending.
If you are sending an email to multiple people hoping that anyone of them will answer, then there is a good chance that nobody will. Everyone will assume that someone else will answer. I get a lot of emails. If I see one that starts with “Hi All” I’ll just skim through it and probably won’t answer . . . Too busy.
You also need to think about the email you are sending to begin with. Is it important? Is it something you could find on your own? Email is a terrible way to communicate, and email culture is even worse. People assume that because they sent someone an email, that person is obligated to respond. They are not. The person you are emailing might be too busy or overwhelmed with their own work / inbox to even see you email. I’ve found “urgent” emails sitting in my inbox months after I was originally sent them. I never answered. The world kept spinning.
If I had any sort of rule for myself at work like “I will respond to all the emails I get in two days or less,” I would get nothing done. I am not paid to answer emails. I am paid to do my job. If someone needs help from me to do their job, I’m happy to help, always. But is lazily sending an email enough to get my attention? Maybe, maybe not. Try a teams message or a phone call, too. Make it easy for me to answer and move on with my day. Email is a burden.
I realize as I am typing these that I sound arrogant. I’m not. I just hate email.
You’re asking the wrong people. Ask the people you sent the email to why they didn’t respond.
I don’t respond to an email sent to a group unless I think I’m the best person to answer. I will always respond to things sent only to me.
“why didn’t you answer the email I sent 3 hours ago? I need answers!”
“Because I’ve been on the floor fixing your problem”
Some people are just bad at emails. They don’t respond. I have a colleague who is great, but can’t sort through his email stack to save his life
My goal is the “act now and delete or file”. This takes care of 75+% of messages. It is the remaining which sometimes get buried on. Y inbox.
Blaise Pascal: I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.
Are you taking the time to carefully word your request as succinctly as possible?
Your post is a great example. In the middle, you go off on a tangent about what you do. That’s not relevant to your question, and your handing of email isn’t going to influence the quality of answers you get.
Send your email to one person. Make the request using as few words as possible. Then communicate why you are asking, including your own deadlines.
When I receive a ton of emails a day I get fatigued going through all of them, especially ones that don’t apply to me or my department. The thing that really gets my attention is how you name the email.
I’ll do my best to answer most emails but sometimes I forget about one. I work in IT out of a ticketing system so if someone truly needs something they need to open a ticket so that I don’t forget about them. Some people annoy me because they try to jump the line by calling/texting every time they have an issue. I’ll deliberately ignore these people so that they’re forced to open a ticket like everyone else.
My org is so embedded in our chat software now that email is an afterthought. I’ve seen folks ignore emails over and over again and talked to them about it and every time learned they simply just don’t check it.
Questions asked that the requestor feels are basic or straightforward usually aren’t. They just ignore, or are ignorant to, the nuance of the situation. If they were truly simple questions you could make it a phone call and have your answer in ten to thirty seconds.
Address your emails to individual* people, not teams.
If you need to request something from a team, ask their manager what their teams formal process is for receiving requests of x nature.
all that being said, I am not at my desk all day. if you need information now, call. if you need information by a certain point, put “response needed by” in the subject.
if you are asking me that’s not urgent and something I don’t immediately have an answer for, I’m doing everything else on my list until I have time to go through low level emails.
There is SO much information circulating at all times. People can’t be on the hook for communication all the time.
I feel your pain, although from a different perspective.
I’m the COO, and I often think that I get copied just to a) be in the loop, or, b) with the hopes that I will motivate someone into action.
My inbox fills with emails that I have no need to be involved with. My frustration comes in when I also see these emails go unanswered. 😅
I work in sales at a tech company, and often people won’t respond if it’s a dumb question 😅 I know, no question is dumb, but I’ve noticed emails getting ignored if sent to the wrong alias, a question that’s better asked somewhere else, or the answer is readily available somewhere and it’s obvious effort wasn’t made to find it.
When you put everyone in the “To” line then it just means they look at and assume one of the other 10 people will get to it.
I tend to @whoever I expect an answer from for each needed response so each person knows who and what I’m direction at them so they can quickly and easily see it as some people get tons of emails per day with lots of it being random filler or someone CCing everyone and thier dog.
Rule 1: never send an email to a team of people without directing the question to a single person. Most people assume that someone else will answer. If you are not sure, pick one. Worst case scenario: the one you named says, “not me. Ask X.” We apply this rule as a team. The more people copied, the less likely you will get a response.
Rule 2: who you email is important. I respond to 98% of the internal emails directed to me. I get thousands of emails a month. Others in the same leadership or higher position ignore a lot of emails. I report up the C suite level. I don’t always get a reply. It does not hurt my feelings. Remember we are not evaluated on the number of emails read and replied. It is not a KPI.
My ADHD.
Honestly, for me I don’t ignore per say. It’s more that I get Hella busy with stuff and run out of time or forget to reply.
Unless I hear otherwise, I will do…. x
I discount anything I’m carbon copied on.
Because I don’t check my email. Slack me so I can ignore you there.
You can always call the person or open a chat.
Sometimes it’s simply because of how many they get. I get, on average ~2000/day. I have them all sorted out to folders as best I can, but I still get 30-40 every weekday in my main inbox for miscellaneous stuff. Generally, if I don’t respond it’s simply because it got mixed up in the jumble.
I’ve found that the best way to get answers is to use Teams (or the like) or just calling the person on the phone.
never email groups if you need a response.
In general, my work emails have been mostly as an update on a project and not seeking advice. So, I’ve sent thousands of emails to many people who never responded in my 40 years at the company.
That said, I’ve also sent many emails asking a question about the project to many invested parties, and I may only get 1 or 2 responses. I rarely need 10 people giving me the same responses.
Are there some folks who just don’t want to respond? Possibly. I’ve run into 1 occasion where I asked a question about a project, and the most invested person never responded.
Morale is low? I worked in a Walmart where nobody answered the phone in their department, people would not train new workers, etc…
Often, people just don’t have an opinion strong enough to share. I’ll typically send my emails for getting approvals on things with a Respond By date in the subject and in the opening say, “this is what my plan is. If you think I should do something different, let me know by DATE.”
Also, if there’s a short turnaround time, and email felt better than Slack, I’ll separately message the most relevant people and say something like “I’m really sorry for the short turnaround time, but just wanted to let you know I sent an email about X subject. I’d appreciate you taking a look and sharing feedback if you’re able”.
For most things though, Slack is going to get the most immediate responses from people.
I’m one of the better people at email in my company, and even I will sometimes flag a message to reply to later, because I just don’t have time now, and forget to reply at times.
Always target an email to one specific person if at all possible.
A group provides a dodge. No one specific person is responsible, so if no one responds there may not be consequences.