Oh, you needed something?

Background for the story:

9:42am - Email from \

Can you give me a call, I have a question.

9:53am - Email from \ again

Dropped you a note to give me a call.

10:02am - Email from \ again

Why can’t you give me a call? I have an urgent question!

I needed to look up something a team member had previously sent me, so I did a quick check of my inbox. I saw the three messages and gave the person a call. As soon as the person answered they were livid that I hadn’t given them a call back yet, it was now 10:04am. So they had to wait a total of 22 minutes.

22 minutes…

I let the person finish and asked one simple question, ‘Then why didn’t you call me?’

They sat dumbfounded for a second or two and then went on about how busy they are and all the things they are trying to get done today. I again let the person finish and gently [1] tried to explain I’m trying to get my stuff done too. I said I don’t sit at my desk with my email open, constantly watching and waiting for someone to interrupt the work I’m trying to get done.

I ended my reasoning with one final comment:

Email is not IM


  1. Ok… there may have been a small tinge of snarky in my voice.  ↩

Email IM WTF

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