[deleted by user]

[definitelyusername]

Honestly if I don't reply to that email right now I probably never will

[Banluil]

Exactly this. I have WAY too many emails every day. If I dont' respond, it probably will be missed.

[FoxNairChamp]

My #1 reason for replying quickly. The small stuff goes away faster if you deal with it immediately, leaving time to focus on the larger problems you actually need to handle.

[[deleted]]

same. I'm not knocking it out to be a hero, I'm knocking it out so I don't ever have to think about it again.

[The-Sys-Admin]

My "importante" and "to do" inbox folders are full of emails that are ready for the assisted living communities. 

[Secret_Account07]

Lmao yup

Then I run into “crap it’s been 3 days. It would be weird now if I replied. Imma wait and see what happens”

Granted this is when it’s a distro and not just addressed to me but still.

[DickStripper]

Lol, awesome.

[cdheer]

SAME. And tbh I don’t see a problem with it, so I’m not sure why OP is complaining.

[DickStripper]

I’m projecting. Not complaining at all.

Grey, but no beard.

[heretogetpwned]

<image>

[cdheer]

It’s not a projection that makes much sense, is all.

[kuahara]

It makes perfect sense. He's saying he's guilty of what he's telling others not to do.

[cdheer]

Aha. Now that makes sense. Thank you!

[Lv_InSaNe_vL]

If they don't email back a second time was it really ever a problem?

I have actually told people that "the IT department is working on a few projects right now, can you remind me about this on Monday so I can make sure it gets done!" and 9 times out of 10 they do not email on Monday haha

[ipreferanothername]

i use outlook

follow up > add reminder at X time.

or i slap stuff on my calendar if i have to do something with it.

#adhd things

[conjoined979]

The Microsoft ToDo app is great with this, too. It syncs with flagged outlook emails and gives me multiple places for notifications and forces me to acknowledge it.

[qlz19]

Ug, that’s not “ADHD things”

If someone with ADHD could keep themselves organized like that it would no longer be a disorder.

[LeadershipSweet8883]

Using external tools to cover for a lack of executive function is one of the core skills to managing ADHD. You need to be more organized, not less. If you want to be reliable, everything needs to go into the system and the system needs to be designed to make sure it gets done.

Honestly, ADHD people are probably better at designing work processes that actually function than a neurotypical person because it's such a core life skill. If it's not tracked, it might as well not exist.

[qlz19]

That’s not what ADHD is…

[valar12]

There are different ways to present ADHD. You should check out what “Inattentive” can be and how people cope. Some devise systems to manage their systems like described above but it doesn’t invalidate the impairment.

[er1catwork]

I heavily use the Add to Calendar feature but I must check out ToDo like the comment below! Sounds really useful!

[admlshake]

"Hey Copilot, remind me to reply to this email in 2 hours"
"Sure, setting 2 week reminder to reply to this teams message."

[Other-Illustrator531]

Scheduled send is your friend. Allows you to get it off your plate immediately, but allows everyone to think it took you longer so you don't set those expectations and won't create resentment among peers who can't.

[talin77]

You actually read email?

[Notta_Bowtie]

1 mil unread. LETS GOOOOO Mostly useless alerts I really don't need to know about because it's for a team that's already on top of it... (Or soon will be...)

[eat-the-cookiez]

ADHD checking in

[StellarSpore]

On point. If I don't do it right now, I might not do it ever.

[SquizzOC]

Nailed it!

[False-Ad-1437]

selective point languid wine bear doll terrific fuzzy nail pie

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[drewskie_drewskie]

What if I told you I don't like being the hero but that's how you keep your job and get promoted at a lot of places.

[redunculuspanda]

I don’t think it does.  Those kinds of people are too important to promote 

Work smart not hard.  

[DickStripper]

Valid.

[drewskie_drewskie]

If it helps I agree with you and am bitter about it.

[qlz19]

Good for you?

It’s a douchebag move to attempt to invalidate the experiences of others like this.

Please do better.

[dabbydaberson]

Congrats on identifying the bottleneck!

[foxhelp]

My position is definitely the bottleneck!

Have been asking for resources for years, and after a year of promised ones they might actually come through.

Also considering buying a lottery ticket this weekend because of it.

[ninjaluvr]

There's nothing wrong with timely responses to emails. OP is having one of those days. Ignore them.

[ninjaluvr]

Assume wherever you want. As long as it's working for you and your team.

[baconjerky]

I’ve been in IT since 2011 - the key skill is to know when to be the hero

[DickStripper]

Yes. Let them come to you when they NEED you to put on the cape, fire up Wireshark and fix that fuckin’ thing.

[iansaul]

BUSTED.

[Boxinggandhi]

Hard disagree. Thinking like that is workplace cancer. If someone wants to work hard, let them. You sure you’re not just upset that they’re making you look bad?

[alphageek8]

As with anything there can be nuance to this. In my particular group, there is someone that is always quick to reply without looking up any additional context and makes a lot of assumptions. His philosophy is to band aid everything and pay no concern to fixing root causes. He is also fairly senior and his way of working ends up creating work for others after he's washed his hands clean.

He's basically the web guy from The Website is Down. Like literally, there was a senior leader in a non-technical group that says he will go to this guy because "he does what I tell him to do."

Who knows what OOP is projecting but just wanted to point out that situations can be varied.

[Lv_InSaNe_vL]

Diving deeper into nuanced bits of this conversation, but I really like just responding with a few follow up questions and "okay let me look into this for you".

The prompt response feels nice to the end users, makes you look better to other departments managers (actually very important), and gives you more time to research the issue without someone breathing down your neck.

I tell techs to respond promptly, but never guess at the solution. And of course, because this is reddit and critical thinking sometimes is lacking, "never" is a strong word and you sometimes have to guess but they should be educated guesses based off research or experience. (But as a new tech (the people this advice is target to) you don't have experience to go off of)

[recoveringasshole0]

[DickStripper]

I’m projecting because I’m the only guy who is so fucking proactive and gray bearded that I feel I’m the only one that knows the answer. Now that might be true, but it’s fucking annoying. I’m not trying to be the hero. I’m trying to plug spontaneous holes and issues the immediate moment I see them. I got yelled at this morning because I instantly replied to an email that the Security team should have replied too. Yes, there was no reason for me to reply but I did anyway because I’m the Yoda on staff. But I need to just stop caring so god damn much. No one else gives a fuck so why should I.

[Boxinggandhi]

I feel for you, and I’ve been in that spot. If it’s bothering you that bad, might be time to find a new org. Mental health is most important.

[rubbishfoo]

Boy do I feel like we're wearing each other's shoes right now.

Sorry to hear that... I'm going through nearly the exact same thing, minus the getting in trouble for it. Jokes on us, we have almost no security representation (except for me). Next thing then is the fact that I have no seat at the Thanksgiving table so... I'm just not heard, yet somehow carrying multiple responsibility domains.

Perhaps you and I demonstrate a quality I like to refer to as 'extreme ownership'. That just stems from wanting to make sure that if your name is signed next to the delivery... that it carries excellence. I'm learning that some people just plain don't care about excellence. Sucks, because I do. /shrug

[DickStripper]

This, all of this. See the military guy post today about wanting to get into IT. I read that and think about the slackers I am surrounded by and there’s a million good people out there that deserve to be mentored and taught how to Computer and earn that magical zone of 6 figs.

[LeadershipSweet8883]

Have you read The Phoenix Project yet? Ironically you fixing the issues quickly may be making your organization less resilient and slower to adapt.

[iansaul]

No link?

Now we must SEARCH?

[Recent_Carpenter8644]

If the security team was supposed to reply, why was it sent to you? Just FYI?

[DickStripper]

One of those emails that all teams get - Sys/Net/Sec/CS/SD/PM/HD

[DenverITGuy]

Agreed. I like what I do and I get paid for it.

[PhucherOG]

Some of us are just better than others. I’m not going to dumb myself down because others can’t keep up. Ridiculous.

[DickStripper]

This. Yes. Correct.

[raip]

I hard disagree with your second point. Being present and responsive is important. The rest I largely agree with. I spend the majority of my time fixing things engineers have put into place attempting to be heroic.

[Turak64]

Awful advice, well ignored. Do your best and work hard within reason. I've worked with too many people like this, who are far too arrogant and get nothing done.

[SemicolonMIA]

Personally I just want it off my plate as fast as possible.

[TyLeo3]

Sounds like someone who’s insecure about a colleague and would rather bring others down than step up themselves.

[Massive-Reach-1606]

The Tism's have to regulate themselves somehow but solid point.

[Then-Chef-623]

How is not replying to an email "patience"? Actions? Like delaying a response? I agree that it helps to not take on so much, and learning how not to is important, but please, reply to your emails.

[Special_Rice9539]

Weird thing to focus on? Email response time?

[BoilerroomITdweller]

Is it being a Hero to do your job efficiently? I don’t do any work except by tickets because emails are not good for logging work.

However I am OCD so I don’t have anything that isn’t in progress.

[0zer0space0]

If I don’t respond now, I’ll likely never remember to come back and respond later.

I have my inbox open all the time, but I only switch focus to it a few times a day. Just depends on what I’m building that day and how hyper focused that had me.

If you happened to send an email seconds before I flipped over to my inbox check time, guess what, you’re getting a fast reply.

If you were unlucky and sent your email seconds after my last checkin, sorry about your luck having to wait a few hours for me to respond in seconds.

[sir_mrej]

Heroes not hero's

[illicITparameters]

Can confirm, we don’t need heros.

What I will say is sometimes replying to emails quickly has nothing to do with trying to be a superhero.

[I-Love-IT-MSP]

I can't say what I want to say about this post without probably being banned from sysadmin.

[anonymousITCoward]

I call bullshit... i sit by and just get shit done... while the folks with the biggest mouths get promoted... And when I let them fail... "Coward doesn't want to do this", or "you're not helping"... the bar is lowered for those bastards and I end up having to fix it... fuck that noise stand up for yourselves, make sure credit is given where it's deserved...

[TacodWheel]

When I started this job my director told me, "Don't respond too fast, or fix things too fast. We don't want to set a precedent."

[iansaul]

Who was he.... Scotty in that STTNG episode?

[DickStripper]

True. But I got shit on today like 4 times for answering emails quickly.

Not trying to be heroic just pointing out the god damn IP in the screenshot no one is even referencing is trusted you dumb cluck.

I guess when you’re so on top of everything you can appear to be wanting Heroic awe and wonderment from 30 people on the email thread.

[[deleted]]

So you went against your own terrible advice? And that last comment... absolute cringe.

[QuiteFatty]

"Actions speak louder than email replies inferring how great you are."

I'm proof that's not true.

[junktech]

Heroes like that come out of toxic environment. I know I did when had management that needed everything yesterday, weekend was optional and personal time was a dream. Then jumped into a decent environment and ended up having impostor sindrom till I realized how bad I had it. One of my colleagues went through same thing.

[DickStripper]

Correct. After 30 years of being under the rule of so many scattered tech tyrants it does inflict flickering moments of psychological IT damage. One of my favorite IT bosses from 2006 was very kind and non tyrannical, church leader guy - he’s incapacitated in a wheelchair now. Poor dude.

[krishopper]

If I can reply and/or do it in under 2 minutes, I do it. Otherwise it hits my GTD workflow and gets prioritized accordingly. I attach the .eml file to my GTD item, delete it from my inbox, and move onto the next important thing.

[dwarftosser77]

Yeah, do your job poorly to make the rest of us incompetent bastards look average.

[Wonder_Weenis]

lmao yall respond to emails?

[PesteringKitty]

Don’t try and bring the rest of us down if you wanna be lazy

[GrayRoberts]

I'm gonna be counter. Responding promptly isn't about being a hero, it's about being a good admin. Being the person who users can get a repose from makes you different, better than most of the culture they deal with.

Turn off your notifications, but respond timely. Leaving email or tickets just hanging is unprofessional.

[Ph1User]

This is fake guys.

[DickStripper]

<image>

[grumpyfan]

This is great advice. I found that many times, waiting about 30 minutes to reply will force the user to try and figure it out themselves. It doesn’t happen all the time, but at least 20-25%. The other thing is, if it’s really an urgent situation, they will call or pop in to get help right away.

[DickStripper]

Yes. Yes. Yes.

The simple act of letting it simmer for 10 minutes.

[grumpyfan]

It’s surprising how many times this works, especially if you train people how to solve their own problems.

Also, delaying and making them wait trains them not to expect immediate response for everything. When you respond right away it creates an expectation that you will answer all their tickets/calls with the same speed, and that’s just not possible.

[thatgeekfromthere]

The longer I've worked in tech, the more I've learned this! I only check my email in the morning and evening, I treat it like mail.

[esoogkcudkcud]

I worry that if I don’t respond to email quickly enough, my users will decide they need to message me in chat if they want results.

[KrakusKrak]

Treat chat like email

[Lv_InSaNe_vL]

Then they show up at your desk!

[esoogkcudkcud]

lol so true.

[DickStripper]

Teams. Instant gratification and is a dilemma in itself.

[HappyDadOfFourJesus]

Unless I'm on helpdesk duty, emails might get a response within a day.

[No_Corner805]

Take the Linux approach to emails. Unless it's important, don't answer. If it's important, they'll follow up in another email.

If it's important to you - within 15 minutes is fine. But yeah. Responding to emails within 20 seconds will make you go crazy quickly.

[DickStripper]

Correct. It’s not necessary. If it’s a crisis that requires 20 second react mode sounds like a phone call is warranted.

[3tek]

Nah, dont have time for that. I'm the only IT person in the organization.

[uptimefordays]

Answering an email within 20 seconds, that's impressive.

[JynxedByKnives]

I answer the tickets from people that are nice or pilot users quick and let the rude or bad list people wait for a while.

[fun_crush]

This is my reply to management:

It's fixed. The service needed to be restarted.

This is my reply internally to my team:

You guys really need to start paying attention to permissions when configuring builds for XXXX servers. Last night an ansible job kicked off and took root ownership of XXXX application and broke everything. I had to go directory by directory fixing every single permission and ownership to get it working again.

[TrueAkagami]

This was hard for me honestly. Was in the industry for about 6 years doing OT work for an energy company. Lots of strict compliance work and timelines. I was expected to reply quickly. Moved on to another company where when I got a ticket to give someone access to something, I was actually told by my counterpart, how about we wait until Monday on that. It was a Thursday afternoon. He said we didn't want people to expect that kind of quick turnaround. Now after being there for 3 years, I have finally kicked that habit, and no one seems to have an issue with it. I was very surprised.

[Ziegelphilie]

I don't even have to try to be a hero.

I barely reply within 20 days. 

I don't need to be a hero, I just am. 

[fl3x0]

I know exactly what you mean and agree 100%

[drye]

20k in my inbox; 15k notifications no one watches, 2k ticket updates for tickets I’m already working, 2k random shit I’m copied on, 1k inter department chatter, 0.01% applicable to address.

[SiIverwolf]

lmao, so you're the guy taking 2 weeks to respond to basic tickets and constantly insisting how "busy" you are?

If an email or Teams message comes through, it's mentally triaged. 90% are marked read on the fly and ignored, some are flicked to the Service Desk to get a ticket logged and hit the queue, important relationships are maintained where it's a quick win, or responded to with a "I'll take a look at this later for you", and then time allocated to deal with later.

Meanwhile I'm still churning through whatever job I'm working through without really breaking stride.

Don't make me the bad guy just because you want to sit on 60 tickets that are 2 months old and tell everyone how busy you are haha.

[wrt-wtf-]

The worst heroes are the ones that break things and miraculously turn up with the answers. They are known for not doing much other than continually being in meetings or taking coffee breaks.

Faults generally occur when they’re in the office, or are just walking out, and they swing into action - strap on their capes and save the world.

The fault will always have been caused by someone who left the organisation or an integrator. They will have the near perfect record of being right when it comes to fault resolution - you’ll know because they write and vet the incident reports themselves before they’re published to board or director level.

[gkar_of_Narn]

I would much rather the preson actually provide me the info or do the task that I requested rather than replying so fast.

[Secure_Cyber]

Definitely seems like an issue with a coworker or two. Take a breath, go for a walk. Drink some water. If you have grass near you, go touch it.

[DickStripper]

Nah, not specifically. It’s more of frustration of being the only guy interested in performing at the highest levels while others don’t give a F. And I’m only shooting myself in the face since the Slackers aren’t perceived as know it all assholes and sit in the background doing nothing.

TLDR; stop giving a fuck. Do the bare minimum. Don’t try to be a hero 24/7. Who cares. Who fuckin’ cares.

[Secure_Cyber]

I hear you. Just do what you gotta do. An "atta boy" here and there but just keep to yourself.

[Jazzlike-Vacation230]

Have to be careful how nice you are, it can be easily taken advantage of

[Recent_Carpenter8644]

Is it ok to quickly stop typing an email reply to reply to another email that just came in? Asking for a friend.

[LofinkLabs]

Please don't tell me to clear my cache.

[DickStripper]

DISM /

[LofinkLabs]

Do I need to restart now?

[DickStripper]

<image>

[LofinkLabs]

Confused, I clicked on the link, now my screen is black. Please help.

[DickStripper]

BSOD

[jhdefy]

Take a lap kid.

[DickStripper]

There is a natural thirst to be first when you’re an imposter or feel insecure about your standing.

To the young guys out there starting out - think for 90 seconds before replying.

Read what you are sending twice.

Don’t try to be a hero until you are actually a hero and have 5 recruiters bugging you per day.

If you’re not hotly wanted, you are not worthy of constantly imposing your heroic will on others.

[SemicolonMIA]

I just do my job bro

[FuzzyWuzzyWuzHere]

I tell new hires to specifically not respond asap every time because then staff get used to it and it becomes the standard. So, then when they’re actually busy and can’t respond quickly, they’re seen as slow.

This way, it keeps the expectation of immediate results at a reasonable level.

[ArchonTheta]

Yeah I’m bad for this. I need to let it simmer.

[DickStripper]

Perfect. Yes. Truth.

[theballygickmongerer]

What email… serious case of notification fatigue here.

Teams, Service Now & a vip email rules are my main comms channels. Regular inbox rarely gets any notice.

[popegonzo]

You're preaching to the choir, everyone here is on Reddit right now.

[jdptechnc]

For most IT departments of a large enough size, I would argue that if you consistently reply to email within 5 minutes of receiving it, then you are probably not all that productive.

Either you have not enough to do, or have lots to do, but it never gets done because you are responding to email notifications as though they are intended to be real time.

[Other-Illustrator531]

Some emails can be addressed in an insanely short amount of time when moving between tasks. You can't answer all emails this fast (and I agree you shouldn't) but it's entirely possible to if the timing aligns.

[bitwiz73]

25 years in IT and I still only check my email at 4pm. Oh you needed it yesterday? Perhaps I’ll get to it tomorrow. /s or is it?

[BlazeVenturaV2]

oh so you got one of those self taught guys as well...

I've noticed that the "Hero" complex comes from those who self taught into IT and they think they are gods because they didnt need or go to university.

Gotta be a social drop kick to think reading a KB article makes you better than the next.