Open letter to those who feel busier than me.

[Martin.Avis]

I've talked about this before, and am told that we have Tim Ferris and his '4-Hour Work Week' book to blame.

I refer to the new trend in automated email responses that say,

"Thanks for your message, I'll take a look shortly as I'm real busy at the moment. I'm currently checking email at 9:00am and 4pm so I can concentrate more of my time on urgent projects."

Or this one,

"I got your email but I now only check my inbox once every morning. I no longer monitor my emails the whole day."

Personally, I find this to be rude in the extreme and am coming close to automatically removing anyone from my lists who disrespects me with such arrogant nonsense.

Am I over reacting? Perhaps. But I think not.

What these messages (they are real ones that I got just this morning) are saying is that the person I'm writing to thinks they are so important that anything I have to say to them can wait.

More so, I am very low on their list of priorities.

And what is particularly insulting is that they feel the need to tell me so.

When I send someone an email - whether a personal one-on-one message or a broadcast email like Kickstart - I KNOW that it is one of many things landing in their inbox. I KNOW that they are not necessarily sitting at their desk waiting to send me an instant response. I KNOW that they are busy.

I'm not stupid. If I happen to get a fast reply I consider it a bonus - not my right.

This is, I admit, a personal bete noire. I would so much prefer that they sent me nothing than a message telling me that they have better things to do with their time than worry about me - I KNOW that already and don't need my face being pushed in it!

This is becoming increasingly common practice - perhaps you do it too. But if you do, have you stopped to think how the person getting the message might feel? Sure, it absolves you from feeling that you have to check your emails all the time - but nobody ever told you that you have to do that anyway.

So what are your motives? To feel more important? To rub peoples' noses in your success? Or just to get up their noses?

Even taken at its most benign, and giving the benefit of the doubt, perhaps the motive is simply to confirm receipt of an email in the same way that a help desk often sends out a 'we have received your message and will reply within 24 hours' reply. If so, then all I can say to that is that you are responsible for a massive waste of email bandwidth. I have sent you an email - I don't need to be told that I've sent you an email (unless I've specifically asked for a receipt).

Don't you think that I'M busy too? How about if I sent you a message to inform you that I'm too busy to read your messages? Will your stupid auto reply respond to that too? Infinite loops?

Tim Ferris talked a lot of sense in his book. Unfortunately, this bit of advice wasn't.

Please stop it.

Martin

[Nigel Greaves]

Hi [ FIRST NAME],

Thanks for your post. I now only read posts between 3 and 4 pm so I will read it then.

[YOUR NAME]


Sorry Martin, I couldn't resist!

I agree with you entirely, I think that it's simply an attempt by someone to massage their own egos. They've read it somewhere and follow blindly in the same way that in the 80's you would see people carrying Filofaxs which they would insist on checking to see if they had a "window" when they could "do lunch".

Well, must dash, busy, busy, busy I'll get my people to speak to your people about reading more of your posts.

Ciao,

Nigel

[Bev Clement]

Martin is that GMT, EST or whatever time zone they are in

You confused me when I was in the UK, because I was there waiting for Kickstart and it didn't arrive. Had you removed me from your list, had you fallen off the face of the earth and there would be no more Kickstart? I stopped for a moment, let the jetlag brain clear, and remember I normally get it HK Time and UK Time is 8 hours behind, how could you do this to me, don't you know I need it the same time

Back to your OP question, no it's not you, it is rude.

[Hamish Jones]

I personally only check my emails a couple of times a day so in essence I am doing what the people mentioned by the OP are doing.

Having said that, I do not feel the need to tell everyone how busy I am.

I agree. I think it is rude.

[JazzOscar]

I think I've heard of marketers just checking their email every 48 hours or so.

When you've put yourself in front of a market that may want to communicate with you I don't see that as a specially good idea.

It gets even worse for your contacts when their blatantly told so after perhaps having taken 15-20 minutes out of their busy day to communicate about something they felt was important.

[GuerrillaIM]

Its better than receiving no reply at all *hint hint*

[garyk1968]

No I'd agree Martin although I would say its the wording being used that is wrong.

You do see automated message replies which say 'we have received your enquiry and someone will get back to you shortly' and I think that is fine. Saing you are 'too busy' or 'I only check my emails' once a day would for me as a potential customer I'd be gone onto another supplier as quick as a flash.

For us UK peeps, as they say on Dragons Den, 'Im out!'

Gary

[EndGame]

I see what you mean Martin and have had experience of this before.

But maybe these responses are actually directed at more personal contacts? Letting them know they won't be getting back to the them straight away. And perhaps, said personal contacts can reach them another way after hearing this via a phone or something.

I know what you mean though, it doesn't make a lot of sense, and it is frustrating, especially when you consider that might be the only piece of advice the person took from what it is actually a very good book.

[Martin.Avis]

Originally Posted by GuerrillaIM

Its better than receiving no reply at all *hint hint*

No hinting required - if you remember, I replied to your email to me within about 2 minutes - it isn't my fault you don't check that email address!

It is true that I haven't replied to your PM yet though.

Martin

[SimonHarrison]

Sort of see your point Martin but many of us IM folks do spend way to much time watching the inbox, and it's counter productive to getting a work flow going.

That said, I don't see any need for somebody to send such a message. I would quite often presume up to 24 hours for a response from some people anyway.

I have to say I don't take the messages personally either, I just don't see the need for them at all.

[BIG Mike]

The flaw in only reading/answering email at a specific time of day is that you allow an otherwise easy task to pile up on you, which creates more work than is necessary in my opinion.

First off, you’re needlessly locking yourself into a set time period to work – that sounds too much like a J.O.B. to me

Secondly, while that set time period might work well for you, there are 23 other time zones around the world it might not work so well for – so don’t expect everyone to try to fit their replies into your time preference

Personally, I answer email throughout the day, as I’m doing other work. In the morning, I skim through it and answer all the simple, “I’ve got a question” type emails and then prioritize the rest to work on them in small, related batches (support type emails). By the time I finish working for the day, my inbox is usually empty.

What I don’t do is waste my time looking at offers or promotional type emails – I don’t let email distract me from my other work. I flag and archive them and look at them when I’ve got some free time or am bored.

I'm almost embarrassed to say that my browser homepage is Gmail, LOL.

I think the real problem people doing this have is that they’re not disciplined enough to avoid the distractions. Customer inquiries for example, are not a distraction and in my book, should be responded to promptly.

I especially love it when someone doing this sends me a support request and I reply asking for more info. Then I get that auto-response about when they’ll read my email, hehehehe. Fine by me – if you want to drag a support request out for days on end because you’re too rigid to answer email, that’s your problem

[barbling]

I don't use an autoresponse but IF I really AM too busy, I'll dash off a note that says I'll get to it as soon as possible.

So far, people have appreciated the honesty from me.

[marciayudkin]

I refer to the new trend in automated email responses that say,

"Thanks for your message, I'll take a look shortly as I'm real busy at the moment. I'm currently checking email at 9:00am and 4pm so I can concentrate more of my time on urgent projects."

Or this one,

"I got your email but I now only check my inbox once every morning. I no longer monitor my emails the whole day."

Personally, I find this to be rude in the extreme and am coming close to automatically removing anyone from my lists who disrespects me with such arrogant nonsense.

Martin,

Would it be better for them simply to say that they'll get back to you within 24 hours?

Or would you prefer they not say anything and simply reply within 24 hours?

You bring up an interesting issue and I'm trying to identify exactly which part of the message bothers you.

Thank you,
Marcia Yudkin

[R Hagel]

Originally Posted by marciayudkin

You bring up an interesting issue and I'm trying to identify exactly which part of the message bothers you.

What bothers me about Martin's examples is that they aren't "customer centered." Instead, they are "marketer centered."

I think of the auto replies I get from big companies that say something like, "Your email is important. You can expect a reply in X hours."

For me, that's confirmation that they received my email and that they'll get back to me in a certain timeframe.

But if I received an autoreply where the marketer/company told me how busy they were and, basically, that my email is a low-priority... well, I don't think that would sit right with me.

For example...

"Thank you for contacting Dodge. We are horribly busy trying to restructure our company to save ourselves from needing further bailouts. Plus, this is a busy time of the year because we're preparing to put the 2010 line up in showrooms. As such, we only check email once every two days."



Point as: We know they're busy. But they don't need to tell the customer that they're busy or why they're busy, because the customer doesn't care. The customers really only care about solving their problems. To that end, the customers might want to know when to expect a reply... but they don't need to know why the business isn't replying this instant.


Cheers,
Becky

ETA: Imagine getting business voicemails like Martin's example. "Hi, I'm screening my calls because I am so super busy these days..."

[Bev Clement]

Originally Posted by marciayudkin

Martin,

Would it be better for them simply to say that they'll get back to you within 24 hours?

Or would you prefer they not say anything and simply reply within 24 hours?

You bring up an interesting issue and I'm trying to identify exactly which part of the message bothers you.

Thank you,
Marcia Yudkin

Marcia,

I think the problem is when you have a list and you send out your newsletter and get the reply which Martin mentioned. I think this is the biggest problem.

Too many people now have this message, and it is annoying when you send a mailout to get the automated response. If they don't want the newsletter, don't sign up,

[GuerrillaIM]

Originally Posted by Martin.Avis

No hinting required - if you remember, I replied to your email to me within about 2 minutes - it isn't my fault you don't check that email address!

It is true that I haven't replied to your PM yet though.

Martin

Not a case of not checking it, the email server is in storage, its not possible to check it as I told you.

[ozonline]

No doubt these types of messages are rude...

Funny thing I remember always happening in my j.o.b. days, someone would send me an email and be at my office door 10 minutes later asking if I'd read their email yet... happened all the time.

I wonder if this sort of thing happens to others and is part of the reason for messages like this?

[Martin.Avis]

Originally Posted by marciayudkin

Martin,

Would it be better for them simply to say that they'll get back to you within 24 hours?

Or would you prefer they not say anything and simply reply within 24 hours?

You bring up an interesting issue and I'm trying to identify exactly which part of the message bothers you.

Thank you,
Marcia Yudkin

Marcia,

I don't have any problem at all if I've sent an email to a support desk or some other 'official' email address for them to confirm its receipt and tell me the timescale that they will give a proper reply within. That's polite business practice, and is not my issue.

My problem is with people who respond to every email that lands in their inbox with an 'I'm too busy to check my emails' auto response. We are all busy, and the vast majority of us don't reasonably expect an immediate response anyway.

As Bev said, if someone signs up to receive my newsletter I have to presume that it is because they want to receive it. That doesn't mean they should send me an email every time to confirm that they've got it (but are too busy to read it yet). If everybody on my list did that I doubt I'd bother to publish a newsletter at all - after all, thousands of redundant messages from people telling me they are busy would make mincemeat of MY time management!

And if I followed their example and sent them a message to say that I'm too busy to read their message telling me that they are too busy to read my message, the whole Internet would very quickly grind to a halt!

Martin

[Scott Ames]

Ha ha.. beat me to it.

Originally Posted by Nigel Greaves

Hi [ FIRST NAME],

Thanks for your post. I now only read posts between 3 and 4 pm so I will read it then.

[YOUR NAME]


Sorry Martin, I couldn't resist!

I agree with you entirely, I think that it's simply an attempt by someone to massage their own egos. They've read it somewhere and follow blindly in the same way that in the 80's you would see people carrying Filofaxs which they would insist on checking to see if they had a "window" when they could "do lunch".

Well, must dash, busy, busy, busy I'll get my people to speak to your people about reading more of your posts.

Ciao,

Nigel

[JMartin]

Sending me an auto response telling me how busy you are just added 1 more pointless email that I have to read, which eats up my busy time.



My favorite are the voice mails that say "I'm unable to answer your call because I'm away from my desk with a client or sealing a multi-billion-dollar deal."

Who the heck cares? You're not there, I can leave a message or hang up. Pretty simple.

[JayXtreme]

I sent 3 broadcasts this morning to various lists... and noticed that I get more and more of these...

Only recently have I noticed a real steep rise in this trend..

I came to a different conclusion than Martin, though. Even though I have read Tim's book, I put it down to more people working in offices that require you to have this reply.. People use their work e-mail and their company dictates that they have to have an auto-reply system set up to avoid "e-mail distractions" (<- how crazy is this bit?)

My father used to do it to all his office staff. Upon my receiving of the company, I stopped these... they are actually counter-productive to office and business management if e-mail is a central form of communication..

I will gladly clip an e-mail addy from my list after 3 auto-replies to broadcasts...

Peace

Jay

[Bill_Z]

I think it depends on the auto-response you are getting. The OPs examples are a bit ridiculous. If I'm only checking email once a day, I don't think it's necessary to set an expectation on a reply. I think most people assume a 24 hour response time, speaking in completely general terms.

The fact that the OP received a response that they only check email at two particular times per day, is really insane. I really can't believe someone would put that out there.

If I won't be checking email for 5 days, then an auto-reply makes sense.

By the way, I believe Tim Ferris' example was that he only checked email once a week. I can understand him putting an auto-response in that case. Alot of email systems, like Outlook for instance, will only send you the auto-reply once I believe, so you won't receive the same autoresponse every time you email them.

[AndrewStark]

E-mail is the biggest distraction facing any computer user.

If the first thing you do when you sit down at your computer is "check your e-mail" then by the time you've delt with the urgent messages you'll have forgotten what you sat down to do in the first place.

Setting up dedicated time for e-mail during mid morning & mid afternoon around your coffee breaks will make you more productive, but as Martin said telling everyone who sends you an e-mail is rude, pointless. In a proper business environment (ie corporate job) it makes you out to be an egotistical pillock who's read Tim's book, but is a little bit too dim to achieve the desired result.

If I send someone an email and I don't get a reply then you can use other methods of communication, or just be patient the world won't end because you've not received an instant reply.

[AppealNow2]

Of course Martin is right. I wonder how the people who send out these " I'm busy to deal with you" ackowledgements react when they get one!
Barrie.

[milan]

Martin,

I have a 180 degree different view on that. I think most of those auto messages were set up with very good intentions. Yes, some messages are not respectful, but with good intentions:
-To inform you when you can expect an answer
-To show you why the person works this way. They had a time management problem and tell you that because you might learn something from the way they deal with it.

Let's be honest, checking email can be one of the biggest time wasters! You could do that all day, check email, surf a little, then check it again, think about email in the meantime. Doesn't sound bad until now, but if you try to concentrate on a problem - you just can't. You can't devote yourself to a project when you have distractions all day.

One of the biggest distractions for me was TV. I just couldn't control myself enough. At the end of the day I always felt watching TV was a bad addiction. So I just don't have the TV set in my home or office for the last 5 years or more. I don't think that was best way to solve my problem - but hey, this did solve my problem. Because of that, I can relate to the people who check their email once in two days on purpose.

[kevinpotts]

As somebody who runs the Cambridge Business Academy in the UK and has an almost obsessive passion to over deliver on student support, I think it's disgraceful and typical of the brits.

For those of us with a demonstrable commitment to delight the customer, it can only do us a power of good....if you see what I mean!

Kevin

[Martin.Avis]

Originally Posted by milan

Martin,

I have a 180 degree different view on that. I think most of those auto messages were set up with very good intentions. Yes, some messages are not respectful, but with good intentions:
-To inform you when you can expect an answer
-To show you why the person works this way. They had a time management problem and tell you that because you might learn something from the way they deal with it.

Let's be honest, checking email can be one of the biggest time wasters! You could do that all day, check email, surf a little, then check it again, think about email in the meantime. Doesn't sound bad until now, but if you try to concentrate on a problem - you just can't. You can't devote yourself to a project when you have distractions all day.

You've misunderstood what I meant - I have no problem at all with them checking their emails once or twice a day. That is eminently sensible.

The issue is over them feeling the need to tell everybody that that is what they are doing.

Far better to just keep quiet and reply when they can - like the rest of us mortals!

Martin

[eidoan]

Doing that makes sense for him since he only checks once a week, but for people who check their email at least once per day, yeah this is probably totally unnecessary.

You are probably overreacting a bit though. Lots of people do lots of annoying things, just ignore it and go on with your life.

[Flyingpig7]

Oh dear oh dear I think you are over reacting a little. In my case I'm glad I got a response at all, that happens all too frequently these days, people sooooo..... busy they forget you all together, now that's annoying!

Personally I check my emails twice a day, in the morning then in the evening.

I have a 180 degree different view on that. I think most of those auto messages were set up with very good intentions. Yes, some messages are not respectful, but with good intentions:
-To inform you when you can expect an answer
-To show you why the person works this way. They had a time management problem and tell you that because you might learn something from the way they deal with it.

It would be better if the email was phrased slightly differently like thankyou for sending a query I will reply/get around to it within 24 hours.
This is what I usually get from my mobile company or any really big company. I think that's reasonable as I have a time frame to expect a reply.

However if someone I knew personally (friends or family) sent me and email like that I would definately feel a little miffed.

Keren

[marciayudkin]

You are probably overreacting a bit though. Lots of people do lots of annoying things, just ignore it and go on with your life.

I don't agree. It's helpful to us all to know what annoys other people so we can look at ourselves and what we're communicating to others, often without knowing it.

In this case, someone probably grabbed hold of a time management idea that works great for them and didn't realize the impact of telling others about it.

We live in a "tell all" culture, but this has consequences.

I remember once I was talking with my editor at a public radio station when she got beeped. She said, "Sorry, I'll need to call you back. There's a call from the White House."

That's a story I can tell in some settings and not others. To some audiences, this story would raise my status as it puts me three steps removed from the President of the United States. To other audiences, it would make me seem egotistical and full of myself and they'd like me less.

We all need to be sensitive to these factors in communication.

Marcia Yudkin

[Pipinscott]

Yes Martin I think you have hit the nail on the head, again....

It is frustrating to get an auto response to a general email. I, like you, could care less that they only check their email once or twice a day, week, month, year...whatever.

As IMers everything we send out brands us. If we market ourselves as caring, personable etc. and send an autoresponse that says in effect "Im too important to talk or listen to you until I want to" then what does that do to your branding?

Its been correctly said the practice of limiting your time on email is very productive. But if you read and answer in 12 hour increments you will have a timely reply, to those things that need a response, anyhow.

[KarenKramer]

The part that gets me is ...

I feel so stupid because I actually opened up their stupid reply believing that they had cared enough to have read my original email...

Then I discover that not only did I not get a valid reply, I'm a loser cause I actually checked my email...

Guess I'll never be part of the "cool" crowd now.

[TristanPerry]

I quite agree. Granted I'm quite new to IM, although I'm not new to doing business online.

I wonder how my customers would feel if I replied effectively saying that "I'm too busy to speak to you".

Actually I don't wonder, I know - I'd lose a lot of customers.

And I'm the same as you OP, if/when I receive any such e-mail I'll just go ahead and un-subscribe.

Customer service is important, but some people seem to think that they are more important than their customers.

When, of course, in actual fact someone cannot be important in this game without any customers.

[Steadyon]

Martin,

I think if you are insulted by their autoresponse reply, it's your problem not theirs.

They aren't trying to upset you.

Steadyon old chap.