*If you found this blog post via a link in my email signature, welcome. This is for those of you who don’t think it’s worth your time to respond to my emails*
Some people say they’re too busy and others say they forgot and others say that my email just got lost in the mix but I’m sick and freaking tired of friends not replying to my messages. Yes and it’s intentional and don’t blame it on your inability to stay organized because if I email you with a sales lead or Paypal you $25, you’ll reply instantly either thanking me or replying in some way but when I actually need something from you it’s pushed to the side and I’m tired of it!
On average, 15 emails every single week that I send out go unanswered and no I’m not asking for handouts nor am I cold-emailing random people. I’m emailing friends that should care enough to reply to a simple question or offer feedback on something OR just simply reply back saying that they’re too busy and sorry they couldn’t help. ANYTHING AT ALL!
My lawyer who is a great guy, as are most of my friends replies to every single email. Of course, I’m paying him for that but when I email people that I know personally and see on a weekly basis asking for anything or simply emailing them offering feedback on their site, product or blog post, I don’t hear back either. No I don’t expect replies to EVERY SINGLE EMAIL but when I specifically ask a question and you don’t reply, that’s just rude.
Before you delete, mark as read or “archive” this message, reply back please and offer some kind of answer that you even received my message.
MY NEW PLAN: Every week, I’ll run a script that shows what emails didn’t receive a reply (based on subject line) and if you haven’t replied, I’ll resend the message with a link to this post. I’ll continue to do so every week until I get a reply.
The level of unprofesionalism toward email really pisses me off and I’m inclined to start a list below that includes names of people who have SCREWED ME and not replied to my very important & sensitive emails. Why do I have to call you on the phone or hound you at social events just to get a reply to my email. You’re not that busy. I receive over 150 emails a day, half of those require 2 paragraph replies and every night I end the day at inbox zero. Email is part of your job and you’re sucking at it.
Fix your email work flow or find a new line of work!
Oh and have a great day!
You need a beer and a chill out pill. =P
Adam,
I had a friend that was binary. Every other email he'd reply to. I got to the point where I stopped emailing him. It was too frustrating. Good luck with your script!
Adam, we can't agree on everything. :) I agree with your feelings about responding to emails, though I think it's a contradiction to preach professionalism and curse in the same sentence. IMO, you don't need to curse to express strong feelings and get your point across.
As much as I feel for you and totally understand where your coming from, I kind of have to agree with Laura. It's only because I feel I need to be honest with others that I would say that, as soon as I read the first curse, I was a bit put off. I thought there was this great thing going on, and it would really, really get people's goat. But, then it kind of dropped off.
That being put aside, and having re-read it while skipping over those words, I think you couldn't have said it better. It's really sad that others who rely on email so very much in their jobs can't learn to respond to one email. Often times they can stop frther barrages of emails by answering that first one – then they don't have to put up with further inquiries of why it was never answered, etc.
It seems to go across the board as well – both the big and small players in this industry have some sort of reply-defect built in. Perhaps it's because I'm not a heavy hitter with a big-name company to stand to my credit. Or, perhaps, it's because many of the people around these parts have become so self-brainwashed to think that's they're the best thing since sliced bread. Remember, they're all “experts”.
BTW, this was by me… for some reason it listed me as Facebook User. Oh well.
ARGH. I forgot that my privacy settings don't fully allow off-Facebook embedding of my profile picture or name.
:/
Both the original post and reply were by me. There.
-Ben Hughes
email just gets lost sometimes.