Emails — do you let the sender know you got their email?
Is a quick email response to say you will get back later a complete time-waster or essential reassurance?
In her Fast Company article How to (finally) end miscommunication at work, Kathleen Davis says:
Let people know you got their message. When you get an email, send a two-second acknowledgement like “I got it. Thanks!” or “Received! I’ll be in touch soon.” This helps reassure others that their message did land in your inbox and that you’re aware of their need.
A colleague, who is a workplace efficiency expert told me:
“This is such a timewaster; don’t do it”.
After hearing two experts give the opposite advice, I thought, “I don’t agree with either of you, — it depends.” But just what does it depend on?
When is sending a quick response valuable, and when is it not? My training tells me to look for the principles that apply and then assess each email against those principles.
Three principles come to mind:
- Communicate to stay ‘on the same page’ with your correspondent.
- Be mindful of your correspondent’s expectations and the consequences of not meeting them.
- If your correspondent is making a request of you or delegating…
