Question about emails at work. How do you handle this scenario?

[raccoon]

Sometimes when I email people, they just don't respond. Period. That's it. Not even,
"Drop dead, Raccoon." (well, that would return to haunt them, but you get my drift.)

I mean sometimes when you need an answer, and the individual doesn't respond.

Let's say it's a case of they don't want to say no. For instance, I email someone asking him
to be on a hiring committee. No response. Not even, "Gee, I am really swamped with work, blah,
blah, blah..."

And in the above case, how long is reasonable to wait for a response?

[Xyzse]

1. When I don't hear from them and it is time sensitive...

I just call them immediately.

Chances are, some people don't look at their emails for a good hour or more.
Some are like me, who tend to judge the content of the email, and if I think it is immediate, I answer, otherwise I wait to find an hour to answer all of them in bulk.

Also, if I see a High Importance email, I look at it, and generally they are not important at all, and I automatically put them at the bottom of my queue. There is nothing that makes me want to disregard someone more than someone who thinks they are important.

So yep, if you think your thing is time sensitive, just call.
If it is really that important, you can cite the time of your email, and the fact that you called, if things go to hell.

[hunter]

2. I'm old school. I check my email once a fortnight whether I need to or not.

If it was an important message someone would call or drop by.

[Sanity Claws]

3. GIve the deadline in your email

Tell them to get back to you by the end of the day or close of business on Friday, whatever. The point is to let them know how urgent it is.
That still won't make them get back to you but at least you can move on to someone else.

[hopemountain]

7. a timeline/deadline in a professional setting is a courteous request

otherwise, your request goest to the bottom of the pile.

[reflection]

9. Agreed.

And I would recommend putting the deadline right up front (e.g: "Please respond to the below email by X if possible, thanks) so they can't say "oh I must have missed that part at the end where you asked for it by a certain time)

All things being equal, and if the matter is not earth-shattering, I always give one business day before I start poking someone. I will generally pick up the phone if I have to do it twice. Hard, but not impossible, to ignore a phone call.

The problem with the "earth-shattering" criteria is, in the industry I'm in, and I suspect it is universal now, every single request I get is a ZOMG, NEED ASAP MUST HAVE NOW crisis. Not sure how we have evolved into the illogical extreme of an instant information environment, but there it is. I try to take deep breaths and remember that if you're not slacking, and you prioritize properly, you've got nothing to apologize for when the queue backs up a little. At that point it's a staffing issue.

[lunatica]

4. Most people read all their pending email at once

So they will move on from an important email by thinking they'll get back to it as soon as they finish reading their emails, or they know they have to go looking for something in order to know what to respond. The thing is it's very difficult to remember the emails you were supposed to remember because another email is more urgent or the phone starts ringing or they need to finish working on something.

Probably calling them or sending them a reminder starting with the words, "Friendly reminder..." if it's also time sensitive but not urgent.

In my experience more and more work is actually conducted through email and it's getting worse. Soon it'll be that 99% of everyone's work will be done through email.

Another thing I do is try to type the gist of the message in the subject line so they can at least see the message even if they don't open it. In the example you gave above you can probably type "Can you please be part of the hiring committee for". And continue your message in the body of the email. This might make them actually open the email because you stopped mid-sentence.

[Avalux]

5. I wouldn't wait too long.

Either the person has a legitimate reason for not responding, isn't an email person, or they're just being passive aggressive. After the initial email, I'd send a follow-up in a few days, and even a third a few days after that. If the response is needed immediately, try a phone call. Then I'd move on.

[Duer 157099]

6. After you think you've waited long enough, resend it

Forward the same message to them, with just a brief note like: "Resending this in case you missed it" or some such.

Can also include something like that in the subject line

[TeamPooka]

8. Just put "Assholes who don't reply to email" in the subject heading...

You'll hear back from them soon enough.

[dr.strangelove]

10. remind them

I get 200 - 300 emails per day, of which 40-50 need a response. sometimes one falls through the cracks and I know I appreciate it when I get a reminder.

[Iggo]

11. Our company has a policy.

One email, one follow-up, then a second follow-up copied to management.

We almost never have to send that third email.

[raccoon]

12. Sounds like a good idea. nt

[hunter]

13. I liked the old days better.

A company would hire a kid fresh out of high school to sort and deliver mail and memos and to hunt down employees who were not answering their phones.

If the kid fit well in the corporate culture, having met and worked with most everyone on site, they were promoted to a well paying permanent position and the company paid for any additional training required.

Email existed in some places, but nobody used it. I once worked in a place where an urgent message was something written on a post-it note and stuck to a person's computer monitor if they didn't happen to be at their desk.

Mandatory email makes a workplace less humane.

I'm so old I remember getting paid good money, above the minimum wage, just to carry a pager or cellphone outside working hours. And mostly nobody ever called except for true catastrophes like machines catching on fire or freezers and coolers going down. If I wasn't carrying the work cellphone or pager I had zero responsibility to my employer. My time was my own.

In France they've made it illegal to keep employees on an unpaid 24/7 electronic tether.

If I was running a corporation I'd ban the use of email within the company, discourage it's use outside the company, and issue all employees a company cell phone that would go silent when employees were "off the clock." Text messages would be limited to a twitter-like lengths, less than 240 characters. Collaborative projects would take place in person, by voice and video, and in forums or software like GitHub.

Email is obsolete, it's one of those things like FAX machines that won't go away because business managers are so conservative.