colleagues who delete your email without reading

[gadget--gal]

I set up tracking on my email so that I get a receipt when someone reads my mail. The have to click "yes" to allow it but I automatically get a receipt if someome deletes my email without reading it. the reason I track email is that sometimes people take a while to respond  (or don't even bother) so the read receipt tells me that they have at least read it.

I only get non-read receipts once in a while but last week I had to send out an urgent email because a laptop had been stolen. I was the second round robin email that week about laptops, someone else had sent the first one. The second email was a brief of a poitn made earlier and offering our department as a contact point.

So... just about everyone reads my email. no response was required but someone deletes my emal. When I look them up it turns out they have a laptop so this email was especially important to them!

so I wrote them a brief note:

to: colleague
subjet: laptop email

Hi,

There have been a few “round robin” emails about laptops but they are important (especially if you have a tablet). It might feel like email overload at times but please read them before you delete them.

Kind regards,

Gadget--gal
specific IT Department

Was this over the top? in our organisation, people whose equipment is stolen always feign ignorance about procedures, (they dont feel the need to lock up $2000 laptops unless they are specifically told.) so I just needed to make sure people get the message. Could there have been another way to go about it?

[Lisbeth]

I might have gone through HR and this person's supervisor before directly sending out an E-mail to this person, so their superiors know that they aren't reading the E-mail as they're supposed to.

[platys]

This is funny, because I was just complaining about how some departments send out way too much email, much of which has nothing to do with me or my job, so I just get used to deleting them out of hand.

I'm not saying this is you, but for example, or IT department sends out these "URGENTURGENTURGENT" emails that are rarely urgent to me - for example, today they send out an email to the entire organization telling us that our network connection to a particular overseas office might be slow. 

1.  I don't care.
2.  I so don't care.
3.  I read half of it and deleted it.

The problem happens when one in twenty emails actually is important, but you don't read it, because the other 19 emails were useless to me.  It's just human nature, especially since people are pretty overwhelmed by their email traffic.  My email box, with frequent archiving, is often at the 100 MB mark.  (My email archive is in the gigabytes.)

[lolane]

I am wondering, sometimes I get e-mails from people and a little message box pops up saying a reciept is requested. I always click that I don't want a reciept sent. So, I am wondering what type of message you get when people do that... if it's the same message perhaps people are clicking that they don't want a reciept sent to you. So, if that's the case maybe they are reading the e-mails... of course if it is a different message then I think your e-mail was ok.

[Peach]

Perhaps the subject line of the e-mail was enough of a clue for the person to delete the e-mail without reading it, but I feel a little hurt as well when I get one of those "Your message was deleted without being read" receipts. Sometimes I get them months after the original e-mail was sent- then it doesn't bother me as much.

[kckgirl]

If the recipient has his reading/preview pane open, he can read the contents of the email without actually opening it. I do that a lot. When you do, and if there's a receipt attached, the message goes back that it was deleted without being read because it wasn't (technically) opened.

[gadget--gal]

I am wondering, sometimes I get e-mails from people and a little message box pops up saying a reciept is requested. I always click that I don't want a reciept sent. So, I am wondering what type of message you get when people do that... if it's the same message perhaps people are clicking that they don't want a reciept sent to you. So, if that's the case maybe they are reading the e-mails... of course if it is a different message then I think your e-mail was ok.

if you refuse a receipt the sender of the email gets nothing, but if you delete it, then the sender gets the "not read" message.

[gadget--gal]

Perhaps the subject line of the e-mail was enough of a clue for the person to delete the e-mail without reading it, but I feel a little hurt as well when I get one of those "Your message was deleted without being read" receipts. Sometimes I get them months after the original e-mail was sent- then it doesn't bother me as much.

I know what you mean, but this email had the subject "laptops- security notice" or somesuch. the automatic deletions happen about 5 or 6am but she read my message in the middle of the day. Normally, I'm not bothered. If people delete my emails I just make a mental note that X deletes my emails, as it might be relevant later on. However, in this case it was urgent and was pertinent to her. I guess I'm just paranoid because of this person "loses" her equipment, she'll be asking for a replacement as if it's a spilt cappuccino!

[gadget--gal]

If the recipient has his reading/preview pane open, he can read the contents of the email without actually opening it. I do that a lot. When you do, and if there's a receipt attached, the message goes back that it was deleted without being read because it wasn't (technically) opened.

That did occur to me before I sent the follow up, which I why I tried to be gentle in my email tone. However, she read the other email and I did get a receipt, makes me think my assumption was correct.

[kareng57]

This is funny, because I was just complaining about how some departments send out way too much email, much of which has nothing to do with me or my job, so I just get used to deleting them out of hand.

I'm not saying this is you, but for example, or IT department sends out these "URGENTURGENTURGENT" emails that are rarely urgent to me - for example, today they send out an email to the entire organization telling us that our network connection to a particular overseas office might be slow. 

1.  I don't care.
2.  I so don't care.
3.  I read half of it and deleted it.

The problem happens when one in twenty emails actually is important, but you don't read it, because the other 19 emails were useless to me.  It's just human nature, especially since people are pretty overwhelmed by their email traffic.  My email box, with frequent archiving, is often at the 100 MB mark.  (My email archive is in the gigabytes.)

Oh, I so hear you.  My workplace (approximately 70 or 80 people) loves to send out mass e-mails with notices like:   "Who has the overheard projector?  Would you please return it to XXXX ASAP".  Well, there's absolutly no reason why myself or anyone else on my team would have the overhead.  So if I saw a notice like this I'd automatically delete it.  It does get pretty wearying having to sift through all the e-mails to find which ones actually apply to me.  Perhaps the best solution is for the company to encourage managers to only send messages to the workers who need the information.  It does take a bit more time than hitting "send to all" but it might make people pay more attention to the e-mails that they do receive.

[That Anime Chick]

The deleted e-mail happens all too often for me. And I do send out some pretty important e-mails.

Gadget-gal, does your company have any sort of policy on company provided equipment and whose responsibility it is if it's stolen? If so, then I would suggest getting HR to gently remind the employees of this policy. I'm sure that somewhere in that policy it probably states that if the employee does not act responsibly with their company provided laptop or other devices there can be disciplinary action taken, including and up to dismissal. Don't think it works? Ask the three sales reps who were suspended for a week without pay because they couldn't be bothered to put their laptops away (i.e. lock them in the desk) at the end of the day. Because they wanted to run down to the local bar for a drink together.

If your company doesn't have this kind of policy, then maybe it's time to have a meeting with the higher ups to propose this kind of policy. It will save you and the company time and money later.

[Balletmom]

This is funny, because I was just complaining about how some departments send out way too much email, much of which has nothing to do with me or my job, so I just get used to deleting them out of hand.

I'm not saying this is you, but for example, or IT department sends out these "URGENTURGENTURGENT" emails that are rarely urgent to me - for example, today they send out an email to the entire organization telling us that our network connection to a particular overseas office might be slow. 

1.  I don't care.
2.  I so don't care.
3.  I read half of it and deleted it.

The problem happens when one in twenty emails actually is important, but you don't read it, because the other 19 emails were useless to me.  It's just human nature, especially since people are pretty overwhelmed by their email traffic.  My email box, with frequent archiving, is often at the 100 MB mark.  (My email archive is in the gigabytes.)

Mr. Balletmom works for a large multinational corporation, and he had such a good laugh about your 1/2/3 comments. I don't think his email approaches anywhere near your limits, and most of his is actually important to his work, but we had such a good shared laugh about our mutual opinion about some people flooding the boxes with self-important emails.

Which makes it so much harder for people like Gadget-gal to get their jobs done, because all the oxygen has been sucked up by the trivial. 

Which is

[hobish]

If the recipient has his reading/preview pane open, he can read the contents of the email without actually opening it. I do that a lot. When you do, and if there's a receipt attached, the message goes back that it was deleted without being read because it wasn't (technically) opened.

Yep, i do the same thing.

I also have my e-mail set up so that i can choose not to send a receipt, and i use it all the time. With what i do if someone is asking for a read receipt, chances are they are being obnoxious.


i, uh, have to amit, though ... i, um, accidentally deleted a co-workers request for a rush on an item i was working on today.   

[audrey1962]

Not sure if this helps, but I've accidentally deleted e-mails (I also know how to find them in my trash). Has this person routinely deleted your e-mails? Or was this a one-time only occurrence? Perhaps it was a mistake?

If that had happened to me, I would reply to your follow-up e-mail with apologies for accidentally deleting it.

[Sirius]

I also have my e-mail set up so that i can choose not to send a receipt, and i use it all the time. With what i do if someone is asking for a read receipt, chances are they are being obnoxious.

Now, when I worked in the hospital records section, if I sent someone an e-mail, odds are it was for something like a doc owed a dictation.  Whenever I sent out e-mails I always wanted a read receipt, because there were some docs (mostly surgeons) who would claim they were never notified about needing to do a dictation, then they'd have a fit and yell at the records personnel because they were gigged for it by their department head.  If someone would delete a message from me without reading it, I'd print off the "deleted without being read" receipt for ammunition in case they tried to blame a missing document on me.  I wasn't doing it to be  obnoxious; I was covering my back, and this process saved my neck more than once.