8 ms·

In business communications, I believe it's common courtesy to respond to emails within 24 hours. If I get blown off, or if somebody takes 4 days to respond to

• the_arun 9mo ago
  Also Async doesn’t mean delayed forever.
• squeefers 9mo ago
  i would suspect this flies over the OPs head.
• reconnecting 9mo ago
  Absolutely! The author doesn't mention what type of communication he means, but for business communications (in Belgium, where the author is from), anything over 24 hours (one working day) must have some explanation. It's always better to explain yourself, otherwise, it looks unprofessional if you reply after a week as though it's normal. Overall, the recommendations about email look very personal to the author and perhaps shouldn't be taken as general advice.
  • itopaloglu83 9mo ago
    Maybe on defined routine processes, but otherwise your email has a lower priority, unless it’s an urgent matter.
    • Juliate 9mo ago
      If it's urgent, it's a phone call.
  • Gud 9mo ago
    Not everyone is glued to their computer. I don’t owe an explanation to anyone.
    • layer8 9mo ago
      > Not everyone is glued to their computer. That’s what out-of-office automatic replies are for, which will include information on what business day you will be back, and often will also specify who is your substitute while you’re away. It’s standard practice for B2B communication.
      • Gud 9mo ago
        It’s standard practice for people who aren’t out of office 350 days a year…
        • layer8 9mo ago
          "Out of office" just means that you don't access your work email. If that's the case for 350 days a year for you, then the discussion is pretty moot anyway.
          • Gud 9mo ago
            I do access it, I just don’t have time to reply to non-urgent email within 24 hours…
• prmoustache 9mo ago
  > In business communications, I believe it's common courtesy to respond to emails within 24 hours. Sounds funny because I only read mails when someone tell me about them on MSTeams. Between IM, supports tickets and jira stories I don't really see the point of emails anymore. If it is something that has an SLA tickets seem to be the way to go, if not Teams. If it is an urgent matter, mentioning my name or calling me will be a quicker way to go. Email seem to be in that weird place where some people still seem to want to insert invisible business matters in an ocean of junk and automatized mails/notifications you generally never subscribe yourself but ends up subscribed by default when given access to resources/applications.
  • wlesieutre 9mo ago
    Teams may work for your internal messages but if you deal with anyone outside of your own employer email is still the standard for communication. Not every piece of business that gets done fits into a ticket system.
    • vel0city 9mo ago
      > if you deal with anyone outside of your own employer email is still the standard for communication I get what you're saying and agree email is almost always the least common denominator between two different organizations. On the flip side, this can really vary based on the relationship between two orgs and how closely they might work with each other. I've definitely had Teams instances with outside users and Slack channels shared between multiple orgs when there's a lot of close daily collaboration happening. https://slack.com/blog/collaboration/slack-shared-channels https://slack.com/blog/collaboration/slack-shared-channels https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/communicate-with-users-from-other-organizations https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/communicate...
      • wlesieutre 9mo ago
        Very loose relationship, don't repeatedly contact the same groups of external people over time. We manufacture and sell physical products, and customers ask us questions about them. Sometimes directly, sometimes via their contact at one of fifty-ish local rep agencies depending on where they're located. Frequently email threads have an assortment of people from 3-4 different companies on them, the specific set of which I will never talk to again outside of that inquiry. On the rep agency side, they might each represent 50-100 different manufacturers and I'm sure are not eager to have a different ticketing system or chat app channel for contacting each one of them.
• j45 9mo ago
  It can be common courtesy as long as the other party is not feeling entitled to one's time and attention.
• otikik 9mo ago
  Different people and different work environments have different rules.' I view my email once per week. If you need an immediate answer from me, I expect you to send me a slack/chat/pagerduty warning, even one that says "I sent you an email, I need answer by tomorrow".
  • deleted 9mo ago
    [deleted]
  • lukan 9mo ago
    If you communicate your expectation visibly, then this works. Otherwise not so much.
    • jbstack 9mo ago
      Even if they communicate visibly it doesn't always work. I don't use slack / pagerduty (not even sure what that is) and I'm not going to install or set up an account on some random proprietary service just to meet the demands of one email recipient. It might be fine in certain contexts (e.g. team members or friends/family who all use the same communication apps) but it breaks down when you're communicating with arbitrary members of the public.
      • hdjrudni 9mo ago
        Those are work tools. If you work for a company that uses them, you ought to have them installed on your work machine. This is not unreasonable. If your friends are using random apps, screw them. They'll find a way to get a hold of you if they care enough. Or you'll eventually figure out what the majority are using and cave.
        • jbstack 9mo ago
          > If you work for a company that uses them, you ought to have them installed on your work machine. This is not unreasonable. I covered that with "It might be fine in certain contexts (e.g. team members..." and "it breaks down when you're communicating with arbitrary members of the public". A lot of the comments in this thread seem to be assuming that the only communications that ever take place are intra-company. For many people that isn't true at all. For me the vast majority of work-related communications are to clients and third parties. I can't just say "screw them" or "they'll find a way to get hold of me if they care enough" or tell them to use slack to inform me that they've emailed me. I have to live in the real world.
• arccy 9mo ago
  24 hours -> 1 business day don't expect replies over weekends and holidays
• coldtea 9mo ago
  >If I get blown off, or if somebody takes 4 days to respond to my email, my impression is always that my counterparty views the matter as unimportant Usually it is unimportant, and the other side is just wasting their time.
• jltsiren 9mo ago
  It's more like two business days in the academia, and only if a simple response is enough. Complex questions often take longer, because coming up with an answer may take an hour or two of uninterrupted time. And if it's a cold email requesting something beyond a reply, and you don't have an existing business relationship with the sender, there is no expectation that you respond. An endless stream of requests from less reputable entities is an unavoidable fact of academic life. Such requests often go directly to the spam folder, as people have collectively decided that they are spam and trained the spam filters accordingly. Even if you think your request is legitimate, it can be indistinguishable from spam.
  • OJFord 9mo ago
    Hear such mixed things on that though, often it's oh academics love to hear someone wants to read their paper, just email them, they'll be only too happy to provide you with a pdf. So I tried it once; no reply. (A month or two after it was published too, not something that might've been difficult to dig up.) Probably straight to spam.
• tshaddox 9mo ago
  > In business communications, I believe it's common courtesy to respond to emails within 24 hours. Different stroke for different folks, but I'm still very much in the paradigm where email is more like a letter in the mail, not like a text message, IM, or "please return my call" voicemail. [0] Of course I recognize that email is often used for time-sensitive matters (like scheduling events), but any time I see an email that is likely to require multiple timely backs-and-forths I'll try to move the conversation to a more suitable medium. [0] Here I'm referring to solicited emails sent by humans or transactional emails triggered directly by a human interaction. In practice our email inboxes also serve as a general "notifications hub" for all sorts of things including recurring events ("remember to pay your bill") and, of course, unsolicited junk.
  • carlosjobim 9mo ago
    There are only two suitable mediums: E-Mail or phone call.
    • deleted 9mo ago
      [deleted]
    • ctpmpse 9mo ago
      async vs sync
    • miyoji 9mo ago
      If you try to contact me with a phone call, you might as well send your message into outer space. You'll have better luck getting a response from aliens. 99% of incoming calls to my phone are spam. I won't pick up an unknown number unless someone has already contacted me and told me to be expecting a phone call, or it's a call from someone I already know (people I already know don't call me either). That is to say, your mileage may vary on what counts as a "suitable medium".
      • nkrisc 9mo ago
        Used to be that people had phones at the desk at work and a voicemail inbox. In a business situation I would expect most people to be reachable by phone.
• baubino 9mo ago
  My rule is: 2 business days if I know you, 2-4 business days if I don’t know you but you are offering something of actual value to me, up to infinity for everyone else. I only offer an apology for the first group.
• charles_f 9mo ago
  It's like everything else, it depends If I ask a quote, get it, and answer only 2w later, I will probably apologize. If someone sends me a quote unprovoked, they shouldn't have any expectations of getting an answer, and if I answer even late, I won't apologize. If my boss or people working on my project send me an email to get a status on something and it takes me a week to answer, I'll apologize- even if that's because I was busy on something more important. If a random colleague asks me for something unrelated with my direct responsibilities, similarly I'll get to it if I get to it when I get to it, and I dont think they should have expectations of receiving an answer, so I won't apologize
• MrDarcy 9mo ago
  This was previously true but no longer. Anyone who sends an email instead of a DM for something requiring a 24 hour turn around bears the responsibility for any resulting delay in 2026.
• Gud 9mo ago
  I am a site test engineer. I am also the primary contact for site test related questions internally for our factory and from customer and colleagues. If your question needs a answer within 24 hours , give me a call and I will do my best to answer. If you send me an email, without any clear urgency, I will respond when I have time. Typically within a week.
• bix6 9mo ago
  24 hours is ridiculous. I spent over 3 hours replying to emails yesterday and didn’t get through them all. And now I’m even more backed up on projects.
  • antasvara 9mo ago
    I think this really depends on your role. I don't get enough emails in a day to require 3 hours of replies. More generally, though, the response can be as simple as "We have received this email; the request will take some time, here's roughly when you can expect an update."
    • bix6 9mo ago
      I’ve tried this but then I’m under pressure to get someone a response by a self imposed arbitrary deadline. I think the cultural norm is to respond as quickly as possible. Realistically that is so challenging.
• swat535 9mo ago
  Everyone thinks that their inquiries are urgent, top priority. That's not always the case, it maybe urgent to you, but not to the other person. If something is critical, you can communicate via other means: phone calls, SMS, slack, etc.. and even then, there's no guarantee you will get a response. In business context, I lean the other way, tend to give all parties as much leg room as possible. I think The Eisenhower Method is a great fit for prioritization.
  • dwedge 9mo ago
    Airbnb recently sent me a terms change email that doesnt apply for six months and I dont use it anyway, but email headers set it to urgent and important.
• projektfu 9mo ago
  This must be why so many spammers now have automation set up to send me the first spam, then a second a day later asking if I got the first one, then a third to ask if I am still interested or willing to let their exciting opportunity to pass by. And then restarting the pattern in a month or so.
• jdboyd 9mo ago
  I think that for many cases that should be modified from 24 hours to by the end of the next business day. I feel no obligation to reply on a Sunday to someone who emails me on Saturday or late Friday. They can wait until Monday.
• graemep 9mo ago
  You are conflating important with urgent. Something might be very important, but not urgent. I might be slower to reply to something important because I need the time to get the reply right.
• jeffrallen 9mo ago
  Yeah, dude, but sometimes I do consider the matter unimportant, and it's a useful signal to send to the other person. Your important might not be mine, and that's perfectly fine. Professionals negotiate that difference, instead of unilaterally deciding the other is blowing them off.