USVI-On-Line

Quick question...on a daily basis how many emails do you receive that require some sort of quick response?

work email or home????

I'm sorry, work emails only.

Well over 100. Most of my work is done via email and my rule is; in by 2pm answered by 4pm, in after 2pm answered before 10am.

I actually find it rude to not answer a business email in a timely manner.

Xislandgirl wrote:Well over 100. Most of my work is done via email and my rule is; in by 2pm answered by 4pm, in after 2pm answered before 10am.

I actually find it rude to not answer a business email in a timely manner.

Not only rude... but bad business!

I agree, that is why I answer all of my emails first before answering phone messages. Anyone else practice this method?

I receive over 250 emails daily and 20 phone messages per day. They all need immediate attention.

It is a bit much on a daily basis and just was wondering who else out there has this type of demand.

So I was thinking: there are 480 minutes in an 8 hour work day. If it takes 1 1/2 minutes to read and reply to an email and 3 minutes is spent replying to each phone message, that leaves 45 minutes to take care of everything else. I don't think I'd last long.

Lex,
That is exactly my point. I put in 45-60 hours of O/T per month, paid at time and a half.

It really is worth the district hiring another full time person, but they won't because they think they can't afford it.

In my opinion, they can't afford not to. And in the end, I'll leave due to not having a life away from work.

Poor managment, that's all I can contribute it to.

What do you think?

Our CEO has suggested, strongly, that we not keep our email in boxes open all day. It really removes focus from tasks that require concentration, especially when you have the little pop up notification and "ding" sound for every new email. A few in our firm (including me) work remotely most days, and we tend to rely too heavily on email rather than live phone conversations. Our CEO also discourages the "reply all" urge -- not everyone necessarily needs to know everyone else’s response.

To answer the question about quick response: I don't consider emails urgent. If it's urgent, for crying out loud call me. And yet I still get roughly a dozen/day marked urgent. (And if you're selling something, don't use a 'read request' to see if I read it. If I'm interested I'll call you.)

Between IM, phone, email, cell phone... I often feel too connected and sometimes need to make myself scarce to focus on a task that requires some concentration or creativity. (And since I am the entire marketing dept., I have lots of those.) And I'm salaried (don't get paid overtime), so the email delete button is my good friend.

Dear Chicagoans: AMEN!!!

I set an expectation with those in my company: If you email me at "your convenience", then I will answer at "my convenience". If it's important - call me then I know it's important and I'll respond like it's important.

Connectivity is really a blessing and a burden. Great to know what's going on - terrible to feel like you just cannot get away from it at all.

Chigagoans and VI Lover,
You are both way over my head on the salary scale, I'm sure.

I work for a non-profit organization. Basically a school district...where the top get richer and the peeons get more work.

The only good thing about O/T is that it is adding to my highest earning years with PERA. So when I retire in a few years, I'll make a lot more money. That is why I'm not complaining too badly about the 45-60/OT for the next few years, but wondering how they are going to replace me when the time comes.

Oh and between Ipad, Iphone, regular email and texting...it really is impossible to keep up.

It is still stupid on their part.

Terry the volume of emails and phone messages you get sounds huge. Are many of them the same kind of question? For example, is there any chance a good online FAQ could answer at least some of them? (Or if they're all internal to your organiztion, something like shared documents etc. accessed via a collaboration tool like SharePoint.)

I find that some people take the easy way out, for them, and send off an email before looking for the answer themselves. When I can, I point them in the right direction and politely say 'look it up'. (If they're internal; customers, editors, and industry analysts get more coddling of course.) And often urgency is in the eye of the sender (procrastination on their part doesn't equal urgency on my part, unless of course they're either writing about my company/product or a customer.)

It's great that your long hours mean more pay for you, but be sure to take care of yourself too!

I get aprox. 100 emails a day, 85 of those are internal (ie: a staff of 40). I colour code my emails so the 2 most important people that I need to answer to come in as either Red or Blue. Those two colours get my response ASAP. All the other emails come in black and they get an answer within an hour or so. The 15 external emails, depends who it is. If it is a staff member at that external organization who couldn't be bothered to look through their own file and thought it was easier to email me and ask me to provide the answer I make them wait 4 or 5 days or sometimes longer. Just depends on my mood. It usually takes them picking up the phone and then I can say, "I sent that to you 3 weeks ago etc. and I've been really busy and it'll take me a few more days to look through my file..."

Regarding the phone. My phone rarely rings. It can go 3 days without ringing. I may get a voice mail every few weeks so the majority of my job is dealing with emails.

I just wanted to say something about connectivity.... As much as I love my computer and email and all of that, I have to say that I am often very very sad when I see people here on St. John vacationing with their wives, husbands, friends, families, and they are all sitting at the table looking at their phones. I see it all the time and it just makes me cry. I mean, I guess I understand when you whip out the phone to take a picture of the bushwhaker you got from Boo @ the Beach Bar to send to your co workers at 11am on a Tuesday, but that should be about the extent of it. I just don't know how people can enjoy St. John the way it should be enjoyed when they are looking at it through a little tiny screen of a video camera or are constantly posting or emailing.

StJohnJulie ~ I agree 100%!

I attended a graduation dinner with 13 people (aged early-20's to mid-40's). At one point I looked around the table and 5 of those people were texting etc. Manners people, manners! And we wonder why our society is going to hell in a hand-basket.