Surely everyone has been in this position before: you email a request/question/idea/whatever to a person, then you see that person IRL after a time long enough for them to have seen the email, but before you received a reply. Do you bring up the question again? Do you ignore asking the question and wait for an email (risking the person getting back to their desk to find the email and think, "wtf didn't they just ask me that then?") Is it a matter of urgency? Generally, if I haven't received a reply from an email after a week, I email again or ask the person straight out, depending on what context I normally communicate with them in.

This is why I call people in the first place. Emailing is anti-social.

depends on the context.

work scenario, i will put a lot of detail in an email and if i don't hear back in a hour ill follow it up with a call.

friend scenario, probably just bring it up next time i see or call them.

Work - email and then go over and ask... say i just sent you an email... esp if its holding you up on work. If it is, and it happens often, cc the boss in. then youll get a reply quicker.

Bring it up if its at all important.

"Did you get my email about X?" and follow the cues from there, the person will let you know if they want to discuss it further or wait to review the mail.

Variations on the theme for client / boss / employee context.

Usually I just go "Hey, I sent you an email before and you may not have had a chance yet to read it yet, it was about whatever.

This is why I avoid running into people IRL, and just stay at my computer.

Work - Usually call/Ask first then send a follow up/Detailed E-mail so they have something to remind them in their Inbox.

Personal - Depends on the urgency. I would probably just call them instead of sending an Email at all though.

At work, if it's urgent i call, then shoot a confirmation email. I begin the confirmation email with "As discussed earlier, i got with your mum. etc etc..

If it's not urgent i email and give them sometime to respond before i call up.

If i meet the in person before they reply, i'll casually mention to them that i sent them an email requesting such and such and to simply reply back at earliest convenience. I don't tell em i got with their mum in person, which is key to keeping violence at the workplace to a minimum.

last edited by MatchFixer at 12:39:43 16/Apr/09

wow, I've come to the conclusion that some people over-think things way too much
if someone gets offended or pissy because I ask them a direct question, to which I receive no reply
then I will restate my question and their offence gets filed under the "dont give a f***" pile

if its work related, you shouldn't take it personally

I would bring it up IRL if I wanted to know the answer. Just mention you sent them an email asking about such and such, they either haven't got it yet, or will make it clear they don't intend to talk about it ;)

i email EVERYONE:
i need a nice record of what they say to protect myself;

if you just chat to them, they can say one thing to you and another thing to others;

email never lies;

^ This is true.

remember, it's not personal. it's business.

http://bestuff.com/images/images_of_stuff/210x600/did-you-get-that-thing-i-sent-you-34713.jpg

“Did you get that thing I sent you?”

I'm with Spook about email as archives. It's saved me once already on an important engineering problem where I stated to a client their design was essentially s***, then they came back 6 months later and tried to blame me for their s*** design. Thanks to GMail 'archive' button, I proved those f***ers wrong. And it was important because the group that came back and tried to lay blame with me was a new group that had taken over after the last group quit, hehe. Lucky.

If it's important, I call.

man, clients, co-workers, anyone you do business with will try and scam you ive learned;

email has saved my bacon so many times its not funny;

i train my flunkees to use email the way i do:

get everything you are asked to do, confirmed via email;

anything anyone asks me to do, put it in an email;

+1 on what Spook said... so many times an email has saved me from office warfare. Some people just have the memory of goldfish or just become all defensive and immediately attack you for their wrongdoing ... idiots.

Internal instant messaging program which logs to the email server :) (Sametime since we run a Domino environment)

Email always externally followed up by a call.

i email EVERYONE:
i need a nice record of what they say to protect myself;

While i also find this a nice way to keep track, and have things properly documented, i HATE when people email work which needs to be completed ASAP, but don't realise im actually somewhere else and haven't seen the email.

When people are giving me work, i prefer for them to give me a face to face / phone warning an hour or so (depending on the job) before they have finalised their part to pass on. Too often in my role i get dumped with stuff to do 15 to 5 on a Friday without any warning, this is the single most annoying thing that happens to me on a regular basis. Sometimes it cant be helped, and receiving that work in an email with no prior notification makes me so angry!

/rant

also

man, clients, co-workers, anyone you do business with will try and scam you ive learned

This is very true.

if i worked with you joanna i would always give you face to face time (and then id email you from back at my desk)

its a requirement for my team that they are on top of their emails at all times during the day:

considering we probably get between 1000/2000 emails a day, its a bit of a skill setting up your inbox so you can manage it:

I love it when someone sends a mass email (say like an invite to a party) and then some knob replies without editing the To field. Resulting in everyone getting 2 emails, one with "come to my party" and the other one with "I cant make it because im washing my cat".

Now everyone knows what you do on saturday.

reply to all, the source of much hilarity.

When people are giving me work, i prefer for them to give me a face to face / phone warning an hour or so (depending on the job) before they have finalised their part to pass on. Too often in my role i get dumped with stuff to do 15 to 5 on a Friday without any warning, this is the single most annoying thing that happens to me on a regular basis. Sometimes it cant be helped, and receiving that work in an email with no prior notification makes me so angry!

You're a better person than me Joanna - if I get work at that time it can wait until Monday just on principle.

Yes mostly if it can wait 'til monday, it will wait. But quite often "it has to be out the door today" (which i rarely believe, but i'm in no position to argue the point to a superior).

haha I just ran that scenario through my head, unless it was the owner of the company asking - that work wouldn't even get a second thought until AFTER my monday morning coffee

There isn't anything so important it cant wait till Monday Morning...
Or Tuesday morning if that Monday is my RDO.

Tender deadlines are usually the biggest "10 to 5" jobs. They usually have to be couriered / exp post / hand delivered first thing next working day.

Yeah, I am my own superior so that helps, but I understand what you are saying about not being able to say no to your superior from my gf's experiences. I work out of hours, it's inevitable in my line of work, because I have to communicate with Europe regularly. But if I am on the phone until midnight you can bet your sweet arse I won't be at work until 11am-12pm the next day.

“Did you get that thing I sent you?”

Credit to Mantis for the Sentcha reference.

how about ''did you like that hilarious chain mail i sent u? The cat was like, on the fan, and he be spinnin nigga he spinnin!''

Usually I just go "Hey, I sent you an email before and you may not have had a chance yet to read it yet, it was about whatever.

I use this tactic all the time. Even if the person is busy the can see you are not being pushy and will give you an answer (whatever it may be). In my line of work in I.T i decide to call or e-mail based on the severity of the problem. In an any well structured workplace people have a general consensus on what is an appropriate way to communicate anyway...

get everything you are asked to do, confirmed via email;

thats fkn annoying if you are trying to get s*** done. some quick job and you get told to send a email. sometimes takes longer to send email than do the job.

thats fkn annoying if you are trying to get s*** done. some quick job and you get told to send a email. sometimes takes longer to send email than do the job.

You have obviously never worked for the government before. They spend more time recording what they are doing rather than actually doing anything.

I work for an organisation that use to be government owned and this kind of mentality hangs around forever. It is ultimately counter-productive.

There is no email ettiquette except to say that read receipts are gay

^
I had a boss who used to use those all the time. Really, really annoying and somehow offensive.

Government is obliged under the various Records and FOI Acts to keep records of everything. Its actualy easier for them to issue instructions via email than verbally, since the verbal needs to be manually recorded, where Email can be added as a record with a couple of clicks.

last edited by Hogfather at 20:50:11 16/Apr/09

yes read receipts are the gayest thing ever apart from gays

thats fkn annoying if you are trying to get s*** done. some quick job and you get told to send a email. sometimes takes longer to send email than do the job.

wow, you either do really really quick jobs, or are really really slow at email

+1 Spook.

If I have a conversation with someone, I hang up the phone and then confirm the conversation via e-mail. This is a good way to say to them, "I don't trust you f***er" and its amazing how often they reply with a change to what they just instructed on the phone!

There are very few people I do business with, that don't get the above treatment.


As for a slow reply, if I think what I asked it easy - I just go to my sent items and resend it with a comment 'any luck?' or something similar - depends if I want to antagonise them for being slow and useless or not.

+1 for read receipt hatred. I never accept/acknowledge a receipt.

The fact that you e-mailed me instead of a more direct form of communication, means that you extended me the priviledge of not having to reply until I am ready to...and that is an arbitrary passage of time.

This is a good way to say to them, "I don't trust you f***er" and its amazing how often they reply with a change to what they just instructed on the phone!

damn straight

especially when dealing with a local council

on the phone or out on site they will approve something, you make sure you get that s*** written in an email otherwise come crunch time they can be c***s and next thing you're ripping out a sewer or a footpath or whatever

If I have a conversation with someone, I hang up the phone and then confirm the conversation via e-mail. This is a good way to say to them, "I don't trust you f***er" and its amazing how often they reply with a change to what they just instructed on the phone!

Agree 1000%.