Let's Talk Email: How Often Do You Check It?
Posted by Likely_a_bot@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 25 comments
Let me get this out of the way: I hate email. I hate it as much as I hate paper mail. I hate it even more when people treat it like a real-time communication medium. It is not. Because you emailed me, it does not mean that I'll respond in a manner that you consider timely. If you need my immediate attention, instant message me or call me on the phone that the company pays for me to have.
With that said, I do check my email, but only a few times a day. I check first thing in the morning and sometime after lunch and near the end of the workday. I do not constantly monitor my Inbox. Most of the time I'm actively working. If I respond to an email every time my computer dings, I'll never get anything done.
Please tell me I'm being unreasonable, and I'll work to change my attitude. I've been post-email for a long time. I tolerate it. I don't know of any other way to integrate it within my daily workflow other than what I currently do, and I've been doing it this way for so long.
I'm happy to hear suggestions.
Floh4ever@reddit
If there are notification icons - I make 'em go away.
So...if there is a little E-Mail icon on my outlook icon I go and make it go away. Same foes for Teams.
bbqwatermelon@reddit
I actually check my email more than teams messages. I tend to get more relevant information from it.
ExceptionEX@reddit
In IT, all forms of communication are generally expected to be real time or at least timely, with accessibility of it, during work hours there is rarely a reason it shouldn't be.
It should be priority triaged but answered as soon as possible depending on its priority.
We have had to let go of lots of people who did not make monitoring their communications a priority.
Right or wrong, it's basically a come to work issue.
NoelCanter@reddit
I hate phones. I’d rather have someone email me or hit me up on Teams and let me handle how I’ll prioritize it.
Miklonario@reddit
All day, every day, all the time. Super-easy, barely an inconvenience.
Connect_Hospital_270@reddit
Yeah. Unreasonable.
elliiot@reddit
Happily!
The expectations part reads like projection, and the hard line is standoffish.
It's OK to vent without needing to change anything. Phone culture is struggling, and hurling emails over the fence can be frustrating.
notbullshittingatall@reddit
Outlook is full screen on its own monitor.
I get between 50 to 100 emails per day and about 20% of those I need to interact with. That being said, I don't always immediately respond. The only time it gets treated as real-time is when I'm working with a vendor to get something that we're working on resolved.
Likely_a_bot@reddit (OP)
I have three monitors. Browser based apps on one, documents and spreadsheets on the other and Teams on the third. No room for Outlook except behind one of the other apps.
notbullshittingatall@reddit
I get it. I just use outlook more than teams. Teams is more of an intradepartmental thing where I work.
Recent_Carpenter8644@reddit
I check it more than I should. I should probably turn off the pop up notifications, because it's them that often make me notice a new email.
Often I'll flag an email for action rather than do anything about it. Or delete or archive it if it's obviously not requiring action, just to make it easier to see those that do.
The most disruptive emails are those from my team asking for help. Me, me, I wanna be first with the answer!
What I don't understand is this push to not email people after hours. I see the inbox as equivalent to an in tray on a desk. There's no obligation to check it out of hours, so why should there be an obligation to not put things in it till morning? If I think of something out of hours or on someone's day off, why should I wait to send it? Making me wait is shifting some of their email curation work to me.
LittleBlazer31@reddit
I have my email open allll day. I see emails as they come in. I don't respond immediately unless its external and I sent them one first. Most work-related communication is done through Teams/Slack/Chatter/Etc.
Unless it's your boss or HR - It can wait. If you're checking it twice a day - I think you're fine.
Prestigious-Sir-6022@reddit
I’ve always got it on my phone. It is an immediate contact medium for me.
anonymousITCoward@reddit
You're in IT?
My email stays open all the time, it's my life line for communications, it tells me when I have a new ticket (most of the time), it allows me to pass information on without leaving my desk...it's my CYA when for when people tell me things that I know they'll later say they didn't... You don't have to respond to every thing, I don't... no one does, and you don't have to respond when the email is received... hell you don't even have to read it right away...
You are being unreasonable, get over yourself...
forty6andto@reddit
Whats the difference? Email, IM, phone call, text. It’s all the same. A means of communicating. It’s you that is arbitrarily choosing to differentiate.
tankerkiller125real@reddit
Email has always been an asyncronous form of communication, the fact that people get upset when it takes me a few hours to respond it frankly their problem for not properly understanding what email is and always was.
If you have a need an issue fixed log a ticket, I'll get a teams message from the webhook and deal with it. If you need something right this second call me, if you need it done in the next 30 minutes IM me, if you want it done within the next day or two email me.
tjvinhas@reddit
I don't check my e-mail, my e-mail checks me. I get instant notifications on my phone, watch and laptop email client.
AverageMuggle99@reddit
My emails are pretty much always open. I also have notifications on my phone during work hours which also ping up on my watch.
I’m solo IT, so I like to know if some shit is hitting the fan. I read most emails when they come in, but respond to most in my own time.
ericjgriffin@reddit
Email is constantly open while I am at work, but I rarely respond immediately. I only check work email when I am being paid and I never check it off the clock.
buzzy_buddy@reddit
just get notifications for email on your phone, and decide if it needs immediate attention or not. 9.9/10 it does not.
that's how I do it.
DaCozPuddingPop@reddit
I agree with this technique. Years of doing Executive Support (oy, what a pita that bullshit was) have kinda conditioned me to WANT to know what’s going on. But I’ve finally started to learn how to ignore emails and respond to them ‘next day’ or whatever when they’re non urgent.
It’s like an alcoholic giving up his drink of choice though - my wife has watched me get twitchy when I get emails on the weekend and fight myself to not respond to them until Monday. My boss thinks it’s hilarious (she’s the CFO so she doesn’t ’get it’ in quite the same way) when I tell her to be proud of me for ignoring an email she sent me after hours on a Friday until Monday because it was a non urgent issue.
Rawme9@reddit
I just leave my email open all day and check regularly. I really don't think it's that big of a deal.
There are definitely roles where that would take up way too much time I suppose
mezzanine_enjoyer@reddit
Man I think it depends on so much. I backfill for service desk, on those days I'll probably check it every 15 minutes. If it's a normal day, I'm probably checking my email one to three times an hour depending on what I'm working on.
We train our users to put in help desk ticket if it's non urgent, if you're having an urgent problem (computer not working, unable to hear Zoom meeting, etc.) you should call the help desk line. They're generally pretty good about it, maybe we are lucky in that regard.
As someone once told me, I think it's the kind of thing where it's not a problem until it's a problem.
Simmery@reddit
You do you, man. As long as your boss doesn't care, assuming you have one.
Library_IT_guy@reddit
On the clock? At least 3x per day. Off the clock? Never.