Thanks for the English lesson and what (I think) was an answer to my question.
I do it when I feel that it is relatively important to acknowledge receipt, either because the person went out of their way or a future action may be influenced by whether or not I got the message I am thanking them for.
Also, sometimes because certain family members get a bit stroppy if they think I haven’t read one of their e-mails, something they apparently assume because I don’t immediately reply to tell them how awesome their forwarded message was. Or something.
I send and recieve a lot of drawing files. AutoCAD, pdf files, image files (jpg, tif). It’s not uncommon for there to be a problem with attachments, so I (and the majority of other design professionals I deal with) do send the “thank you” email. There can be problems with corrupted or dropped attachments, or attachments being to big, or just plain incompatibility with AutoCAD versions.
I also don’t mind clicking on the “return reciept” thing. My colleagues and I are all busy, we’ve got deadlines to meet and clients to satisfy. Knowing that my set of drainage calculations made it in time to be printed and out the door in time for the Mayor and Board meeting is important to me. It’s professional courtesy to do it for others as well.
I do the thanks e-mail, more as an acknowledgment of receipt than anything else. I agree with a PP, I don’t usually just type “thanks” usually it is more along the lines of “Thanks I appreciate your help!” or “thanks for the speedy reply!” or what have you.
At work I send this kind of thanks e-mail to the people who are on my peer-level or who are VPs more often than I do for my direct reports. (For my team I look for times when they get something really right and praise them meaningfully for that, rather than thanking them for routine follow-through.)
Another reason for email communication failure: I’ve come across many people who I have to assume just scan the header lines in their inboxes and simply decide most of their messages are not important enough to read. I know they do this because I do a lot of web meetings, and many times the other person will accidentally show their email inbox to everyone. And it’s totally full of unread email going back for hours, with only a few selectively having been read. Maybe if they actually clicked on some of those emails, they might actually have some idea of what is going on and can possibly participate in this call.
Or possibly, they just planned to read it all later and never got around to it.
In my current job, I do it when it’s someone I don’t usually ask something of, specially if it was a technical question, in order to signal “ok, I read your response and won’t be badgering you about this any more”.
The reason I do it is because I’ve had some people in this company come with a follow-up weeks after the original letter… people who click on every email so it counts as “read” but who don’t actually read them until Saturday… people who ask about an issue weeks after the rest of us wrapped it up but, because they are in a position of power, you can’t just say “it’s solved, we’re doing This”; you need to explain the whole reasoning and going-forths… basically, I’m saying I won’t do what they do 
My close coworkers already know that, so I don’t need the extra email.
I should have read the OP. When I ask or receive something I need, I always say “thanks.” When it’s just random poop email, i only send a response when it’s one of the Japanese who work at my company. Apparently, in Japan, they have different rules for email ettiquette, and answering an email immediately, even to say “I’ll read it later” is necessary.
Depends on the sender - some people need to know that you have received their email, others need to be encouraged every time they actually use email instead of printing something out and handing it to you*. For others, I don’t bother.
Grim
*I have a colleague who will type something out in word, print it and hand it to me so that I can re-type it into the morning email notices - she can use email, I’ve seen her, but somehow she chooses not to.
I do, but I put it in the subject line with a eom (end of message)
So if the subject line has been: “re: Report due Fri”
I’ll respond with “Thanks (eom) re: Report due Fri”
I get two, three emails a week meant for someone else. This tells me that sending to the wrong person is common enough that confirmation of receipt is not a bad thing. Especially for important things.
I’ve had attachments get filtered by spam filters, others that are over delivery size limits that just dissappear into cyberspace, some people “lose” emails between devices etc etc.
I generally send a thanks {insert additional message}
Delivery receipts I hate with a passion - I had it running on my account for a while, and getting comfirmation that an email was received was worthless - what I needed to know were the ones that WEREN’T - which delivery reciepts didn’t help me with (unless I matched manually, and with a few hundred mails a day, or more to multiple recipients, who’s gonna do that?)
According to Emily Post:
If you ask someone for something and they respond, you are required to:
Write them a formal 1st class letter (return receipt requested) offering your sincere and undying appreciation.
The recipient of this formal letter must acknowledge this in writing within 7 business days but only by 1st class mail.
Once you receive the postcard, you have 3 days to respond in writing via postcard.
The recipient of the postcard has 2 days to phone you advising receipt of the card.
Afterwards, each party must exchange one email expressing their friendship and admiration.
Finally, the next time the parties involved see each other, they each must make eye contact and smile while simultaneously displaying the “thumbs up” gesture followed by jumping into the air and clicking their heels.
After that, you’re done and may return to your normal life.
OK, this just happened to me. (Not a “Here you go,” “Thank you,”) but more of a situation where I’m trying to arrange a meet up with a friend. She thought she emailed me back but never did. So I guess sometimes things can happen…
I voted “always”, but it’s more like “almost always, except when it’s my boss.”
My boss hates getting bogged down with unnecessary emails, and I learned pretty early on sending “thanks” emails is unnecessary and it potentially annoys her. With most everyone else, a simple “thanks!” let’s them know I got it and there weren’t any problems.
Not necessarily. I have had times where after I’ve sent a document I get a call asking where it is. Junk filters, mistyping/being told a wrong email addresses, etc. can get in the way of someone receiving your email *without *notifying you it hasn’t been received. Granted it’s rare, but it happens to me at least once a month.
Honestly, I could do without receiving the “thanks” emails myself, but they’re easy enough to delete, and in my line of work (I’m support staff at a law firm and have to email attorneys, clients, paralegals, court reporters, and even judges at times) I need to be polite/courteous, which almost always requires letting someone know I’ve received what they sent. Most of the time it’s “Thanks, I will forward this along” or “Thanks, I will get this taken care of”, etc. So usually there is a task associated with it and I’m letting that person know it’s now on my to-do list.
Almost never. I thank the other person for their response in my request. People in my office get scores of emails per day; there’s no reason to clutter up everyone’s emails with fodder.
What really grates is being copied on an email chain from a particular coworker who responds to every “Thanks” email with a “You’re welcome!” reply. That two extra unnecessary emails for me to read and delete.
The thumbs up seems pretty informal. I would offer a warm but firm handshake, while thanking the person for their e-mail, and then courier a follow up letter.
I almost always do at work, but mostly because there are many, many times when people
(a) email me something as an attachment that cannot be opened or
(b) send me an email with an attachment and no subject or no message or just something like “thing you need” as the subject or message or both that gets sent to the spam folder and then email me repeatedly asking if I got the last email and then I know it’s time to head to the spam folder.
And so I either have to reply and suggest a solution to the attachment problem and then reply again once I have received something openable to say thanks, or reply and say “Yup, okay, here it is, in the Junk Box, thanks”. So I just sort of default to responding with a quick thanks to let the sender know I’ve received their email everytime.
Make sure to include a receipt so you know the other person’s received the follow up.
For my part, I have an intense and possibly irrational dislike of “thank you” emails and that receipt feature. When I’m focused on my drafting and my email or ICQ start flashing all over the place it’s really irritating to address them only to find “Thank you!”
I only need the flashy treatment when something important happens. Like cupcakes in the conference room.