I sent out an e-mail with certain information in it. I get back a question, in response to that e-mail, with a question that is exactly answered in the e-mail I sent. :smack:
Now I don’t even know how to write back. “Please see the e-mail I sent, that you responded to, you dolt, it’s all in there.”
Did you include more than one piece of info per email, or more than one question? I’ve found that very, very few people actually read the entire email. If you have two paragraphs, one about subject A, the other about subject B, no way will 90% of the people read both paragraphs.
When I send out emails that I need responses to, I make sure to only put one question per email. If I do forget, and put more than one question per email, and someone answers all the questions, that person goes into my “super smart human who I want to be friends with and work with forever” folder.
Eh. It’s easy to miss something specific in an email as your eyes scan across the screen, especially if you have a wide screen and small type. For emails containing multiple pieces of information, I tend to make a bullet list for just this reason.
Just copy and paste whatever sentence contains the info requested from your first email and send it back.
Here’s something related which really burns my biscuits. :mad:
I sent a submittal last July which consisted of two USGS reports, including drainage area maps and stream gage records. This is noted on the transmittal form.
I get a review letter back this March saying “please submit drainage area mapping and stream gage records. Please note that this information was requested previously”.
I wanted to dash off a letter saying “Please note that this was submitted previously” but I didn’t. Some people!! Grrrrrr.
I’m pretty sure I’ve ranted about this before in the workplace rants thread but just last week I asked someone for something - that they sent in the email I was responding too.:o I honestly have no idea how I missed it, I swear I read the whole email but I clearly didn’t absorb the contents.
I’ve always let the first incidence pass with no snarky comments but I’m going to try and be more laid back about it. Probably better for my blood pressure too.
No, I’d never snark to her, which is why I’m on here snarking. But this was how it went:
“On X date we will review your results, and X thing will be sent on X date.”
The question was “When will X thing be sent out? Everyone is asking me!”
Something about E-mail makes it a very bad form of communication. Nobody reads them thoroughly, they read them while having other things on their minds. They don’t check them very frequently. They look at the subject line and decide that it can wait for later, because there are a lot of more urgent things to do.
I tell people that if you really want me to know or do something urgently, then you should tell me in person, or call me on the telephone. E-mail just isn’t good for urgent or critical information.
How are people so stupid?
It’s not like they are following a process to get there. More the opposite, really.
For me, it’s the opposite. Anything you tell me goes in one ear and out the other, but if I see it in print, it gets soldered into my brain.
Which is why communication sucks, and everything needs to be said five different ways, and even then usually gets screwed up.
Though the first part of your post is true, unfortunately I don’t think you can get away with asking people to call you every time they need something right away. At least not in my industry; it’s a given that you check your email very frequently, and respond to it as well. Someone who insisted that they get a call every time something urgent came up wouldn’t be effective at all.
Sure, on occasion someone has stepped away from their desk or is at lunch or whatever, and a phone call is necessary, but if it was apparent that someone simply didn’t check their email enough or didn’t respond within a reasonable amount of time, that person would be a liability to the team.
'Twasn’t urgent or critical. I didn’t even need to send it. I sent it to a bunch of people as a service…I sent it in order to head off some of the questions, because I know that the questions about this item are going to start now.
I expected a portion of people, as always, to ignore or delete the e-mail, or only read portions of it, or whatever. What I didn’t really expect, and obviously I should set my bar much lower, is for them not even to read the first line, which has the date clearly in it.
As to the rest, if you tell me in person, or call me on the telephone, and I am busy, I may not remember to do it. But I always go through my e-mails and make sure all of my tasks are done, so I prefer it via e-mail.
Erm, yeah, put me in the “prefer emails” camp. It’s a (digital) paper trail, and my memory prowess approximates a colander.
And 'Mika? I don’t know what you do exactly - and for various reasons I’m slightly cagey about what I do - but I deal with this scenario at least every other week, and some heartbreaking days, a lot more often than that. You have my eye-rollingiest sympathy.
*** In fact, this post took me a while to compose because I had to break off to go back to my emails, to … you guessed it …
Yeah, WTF is that??? I feel like I’m the only one among my friends and coworkers who thoroughly reads an entire email.
Frequently, I would email my friends like this: I’d say hi, talk about a subject, ask a couple questions, then end. The responses I get back are like this: Ignore what I talked about and make no reference to it, answer one question, usually the last one in the email, then end.
WTF people??? If it has a question mark at the end of it, answer the fucking question! I didn’t write all that just for fun, and its not up to you to decide if talking about a non-sequitor is sufficient to answer my question. Its like if I ask people several questions in a row, their brains get overloaded and they can only respond to the last one. I know they’re not all that stupid, but their email skills are absolutely atrocious.
Pick up the phone and call them. Tell them that you sent the info in the last email. Try to sound concerned that they missed the info the first time. I’ve had to do this for a few people. For some reason, these people now read my emails with more care. I think it’s because they don’t ever want to talk to me on the phone again.
That’s when I pick up the phone and talk to the person. Email is a real PITA at times.
I’ve seen email problems like this. There is this one guy at the office who came to me for a status report on one of the items he delegated to me, and I told him that I had previously emailed one to him. It turns out that he hadn’t checked his email in hours, and admitted that, and wanted an oral report. This same guy also has asked me to take a series of emails that I sent to him over a period of time and distill them into a brief oral presentation for him, because he doesn’t have time to read the emails.
I suppose responding with, “LEARN TO READ!” is out of the question. 
I suspect that this is the same mentality that we often see here, where people respond in a thread that they obviously haven’t read (repeating something someone has already posted). It might be the written equivalent of conversation, where people wait for you to stop talking so they can start again, without listening to what you just said.
I’ll add my similar gripe in here, too - I work the emails for an anxiety support group, and I have one woman who always emails me to find out if we are having a meeting. We have meetings every second Monday - if things change, I’m diligent about sending out an email warning to everyone. Use a frickin’ calendar, woman! I’m not your personal secretary! The last time she did this, I used UncleRojelio’s method of being concerned that I had her email address wrong, because I had sent that information out to everyone. Her response was (paraphrased), “Oh, I got that email - I just deleted it instead of writing the information down.” :smack:
Yes, they are. I few weeks ago I sent an email asking for volunteers for a pilot project. The email included a list of three requirements. I got a dozen emails asking for the requirements.
I don’t understand the OP.
**Anaamika **, this happens all the time with my clients. What I usually do is say something, “I hope this email finds you well! It’s so good to hear from you! To answer your question, please see the email I sent on WHATEVER DATE at WHATEVER TIME. Specifically, the following chunk—” then I copy and paste the relevant portion. Bam.