6d ago

Why do people insist on not answering ALL the questions in an email or text message?

For example I'll send an e-mail with 3 questions and will only get an answer to one of the questions. It's worse when there are 2 yes/no questions with a question that is obviously not a yes/no question. Then I get a response of

Yes

back in the e-mail. So which question are they answering?

Mainly I'm asking all of you why do people insist on only answering 1 question out of an e-mail where there are multiple? Do people just not read? Are people that lazy? What is going on?

Edit at this point I’ve got the answers . Some are too lazy to actually read. Some admit they get focused on one item and forget to go back. I understand the second group. The first group yeah no excuse there.

Continuing edit: there are comments where people have tried the bullet points and they say it still doesn’t help. I might put the needed questions in red.

235 comments

People read the subject line, assuming it's not longer than about seven words, and then the first 30%, and last 15% of your email, in my experience. You can increase this by adding line breaks and bullets. In my experience, the best responses come from a short paragraph, followed by a couple bullet points, then a couple sentences, then your salutation/signature. I try not to write anything longer than that.
- This. OP is mistaken if he thinks all people had to carefully read all email. We techies love to explain things too much, but executives are administrators, they don’t delve into technical details unless needed.
  My technique to get busy executives to answer my emails is being direct and brief.
  Subject: As concise as possible, and then more
  In bold, one thing I need from them. Asking three things is a sure way to end up with two unanswered things.
  Two line breaks
  In bold “Details”, another line break, and a bullet list of any info they might need, but not necessarily read.
  That’s it. If they need more, they will ask you. If you need more, send three emails, or make it very clear in the first line that you’re asking three things, and make them a bullet list.
  Also, this works surprisingly well with people other than executives.
  
  That's right. The brains of these super-efficient high performers and most valuable members of our society are so above everyone else, that they need babysitting and special care taken of their needs. It's why they also deserve to get paid so much more than everyone else and not have any actual responsibility for their genius decisions!
  Every day I feel so bad for these leaders and am inspired by the self-sacrifice they bring to make the world a better place.
  
  Dude, tell me you haven’t been in a management position without yadda yadda etc.
  They’re not genius or more valuable, their workflow is different. In development I could solve the same problem for days, and know the ins and outs of it; as a manager. When I pivoted to management, I understood I have people who know their shit, so I don’t have to worry about the details while I make sure they have everything they need to accomplish our compromises.
  I had to learn to let go of the tech work so I could be more effective as a manager. I’d love to talk about Postgres optimization during dinner, but I can’t devote much time to that during the work day. That’s someone else’s job. I’ll just give them the resources.
  
  Yep. Basically you need to respect their time, and not ask them to duplicate the work you’ve already done. This is especially important for executives, but works well on anyone… if you really need someone to do a thing or answer a question, make it easy for them to focus on completing your ask.
  Address the email to one person who you need action from.
  Tell them succinctly:
  Why is this important?
  What do you need from them right now?
  After that, preemptively provide the answers to any followup questions they might ask - give them further context so they don’t have to dig for it. Don’t ask them to read a whole email string below if you can summarize it.

235 comments