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.
“Do people just not read? Are people that lazy? What is going on?”
Not much, what is going on with you?
Do people just not read? Are people that lazy? What is going on?
I can read
S-trier trolling right here.
Been doing email since it began. Same frustrations.
Solutions (workarounds):
- Email is structured with “executive summary” & “detail”. That way I can write all the words I want but people can only read the first paragraph.
- Never ask questions. Tell them what I’m going to choose, & give them opportunity to disagree. That way if they don’t respond usefully I can take their “non-response” as a response & proceed anyway.
- If I need to ask a question, use a phone call or go to their desk, or (shudder) make a meeting.
No.
I started listing the questions as 1. 2. 3. And so on. Which helped a lot.
I hate when i do that and they still refuse to answer more than one
At least now you can rely back with “can you also provide feedback for #1 & #3?”
Repeat until all items are cleared. Not perfect, but at least you don’t have to waste time rewording a follow-up email.
Because people choose the easiest question to answer. You can’t change people, but you can change how you communicate.
I usually number my questions, makes it more obvious
For me it’s not intentional. I get fixated on one of the questions that require more mental energy than the others and then forget to answer the rest. I have no excuses. My bad.
People are lazy and stupid, you can ask one question at a time or better yet setup a meeting to ask them verbally, you aren’t getting any answers otherwise
Yep that’s fine push to production by Friday plz.
If you’ve got questions, put them in bullet points.
I’m not scanning a wall of text to find everything.
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parse
That sounds like technical jargon…
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I can confirm that it doesn’t work at all. My advice is to send one question per email, or one chat message per question. It’s better.
AI bullshit
If you ask 10 questions and I know the answer to two of them, I’m going to answer the two and respond expecting someone else to answer the other questions.
If they are all directed at me and I’m the only person in the TO, then I’ll answer what I can. The times I don’t answer is because I either don’t have an answer or don’t want to answer it right now.
Instead of immediately blaming the other person, reflect upon your words. If someone sent you the same message with different but similar questions, how would you respond? Were the questions clear and concise with reasonable answers or do they need discussion? If yes/no is asked, is the question really a yes or no question?
Remember, as busy as you are, the other person may be busier or dealing with emergencies and they are at least attempting to respond rather than just no response at all.
Do you acknowledge the questions you haven’t answered and state that you’ll respond to them at a later time or want another person to chime in?
Even when we converse, we get across just one point at a time. You have to respect other people’s time and bandwidth (Okay, one or two points).
Yes because when are conversing in person you are conversing synchronously.
Only one person talks at a time and for the most part only one major subject idea question or problem is considered at a time. You talk about one thing and then you move along and talk about another thing.
This is not necessarily the case with written language. Where you have the benefit of talking about many things, changing subjects, and listing information out. And the reader can work through this at their own leisure and at their own pace without feeling overwhelmed
I’ve had my fair share of issues with not getting a complete response from e-mails. And so I changed the way I look at it. It’s not like it will take weeks to get all the information you need just because you didn’t get everything in one go.
Speak for yourself. We’ve had YEARS of delay because someone answered “no” to a 2 part question when they completely ignored the first part.
Even you ignored the first part of what I said, but I don’t blame you. That’s how conversations go.
You weren’t speaking to me, just making a general statement. Under those circumstances it’s perfectly reasonable to address only part of someone else’s statement.
I guess it doesn’t apply to you…
Hi based on you current post,
Why do people insist on answering only one question?
**Do people just not read? ** I would say most people have a lot to read, especially emails, I get dozens of them daily, archive a few thousands yearly. So I will gloss over, see if it’s addressed to me, of not I will probably wait until it becomes my problem to react/reply
Are people thatLazy? No people are busy, is this the same question as the first, out a request for alternatives causes to not reading?
What is going on? This question is vague, I see no point in replying, except maybe an opportunity to troll, or belittle you in this email that had now accumulated 30 people over 7 departments, and possibly one or two customer that were involved a week ago when the thread was about something entirely different.
In short, be specific, and format your message for readability. ;
Name whoever you expect to reply. Split your questions.
Make sure they’re actual questions you need definitive answers to.So I will gloss over, see if it’s addressed to me, of not I will probably wait until it becomes my problem to react/reply
Tbh I would rather have someone do this not realizing I’m expecting a reply from them than to reply only to some of it, because when the latter happens it’s usually like pulling teeth to get a response to the rest.
Gonna be honest, always write my mails structured with listed out questions that try to be specific yet not overloaded with info (hard to do, but possible. Mostly) and yet…
I get two answers to my three questions, with one answer even on topic, and the other being astrology divination of polar bear’s butthole position over png of africa.
Yeah I get that too.
Should the report be sent by mail or e-mail?- frozen yogurt
