Back in this post I mention some of the annoying habits people have of not reading their email. I think it’s becoming a pandemic, and it’s getting worse. Reading email apparently takes too much time so it’s easier for people to just call me and essentially ask, “can you please tell me what you emailed me earlier?”
I spend at least an hour a day – probably more like two – answering the phone to questions that people wouldn’t have to ask me if they would just read the fucking emails that I send them. I’m at the point where I want to start refusing to answer questions – I’ve already made it even harder for folks to leave their 20-minute rambling voicemails on my mailbox by putting up an extended absence greeting that states “please do not leave a voicemail, please send me an email so I have your request and information in writing.”
I also hate it when I tell people, “well, I sent you this last week…” and they respond all innocent-like, acting as though they’ve never heard of email before; “oh, you did?? REALLY?? Golly gee whiz, could you send that to me again, I must not have received it! It must have gotten eaten up by the email servers, ha-ha!”
As someone who has run her own server – web and email – I’d like to say that it is NEVER eaten by the email servers, especially at an enterprise-sized company with who knows how many backup email servers and archival systems in place.
My new policy is this: if I am sending something to you for the third or more time, I will up who your direct supervisor is in the company directory and CC that person. And I always make sure to forward the forwarded email, so both your boss and you can see I have already sent it to you X amount of times.
Bitchy? I really don’t care. Learn to read, and stop wasting my time. Aren’t engineers supposed to be smart?