I’m always amazed, and irritated, when people expect an instantaneous answer. In these days of instant electronic communication, the fact that replies could be immediate is often conflated with the thought that they will be immediate. This leads to unnecessary aggravation for everyone involved.
How many times have you been asked a question, only to have the person asking it move on before giving you an opportunity to answer? Whether they’ve escalated the situation by looping in more people or simply made a decision without all of the facts you could have provided, now you’re both on the defensive.
I realize this list will not live on past this article, but it sure would be nice if it could avert some of these avoidable conflicts for me or someone else in the future.
When communicating electronically, please remember:
- Just because you are sitting at your computer, the other person may not be sitting at theirs.
- Just because you are working on that specific topic, the other person may be working on a different critical issue at that same moment in time.
- When you haven’t received an answer within 5 minutes, 2 hours, etc., that doesn’t mean you will never receive an answer.
- If it was important enough for you to ask the question, isn’t it also important enough to wait for an answer?
With a good dose of patience and understanding, everyone can accomplish what needs to be done. Replies can be made in a timely manner, even when they’re not instantaneous.