[HN Gopher] Ask HN: How does your company manage communication r...
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       Ask HN: How does your company manage communication response
       etiquette?
        
       Hello HN!  I've just started working at a large (~5000 employee)
       company in a senior IT management role and in the last two weeks
       there have been several mission critical issues that key, senior
       people I've emailed, then IM'd on teams thst have been completely
       unresponsive.  These are all fully remote positions and "forwarding
       the email to their boss" in our org structure would be the CIO, and
       having only started two weeks ago I'm not really ready to be -that
       guy-....yet.  How does your company handle slow or no reply
       communication issues?
        
       Author : geeky4qwerty
       Score  : 11 points
       Date   : 2022-08-19 20:03 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
       | coffeefirst wrote:
       | Why not ask them directly? What gives, and what's the best way to
       | work with them in the future when you need a timely response?
        
       | afarrell wrote:
       | Different people/teams have ownership of different areas. They
       | decide their responsiveness based on the their responsibilities
       | and the agreements they have with the people that rely on them to
       | fulfill those responsibilities. We are careful to try to avoid
       | sending false signals of urgency as if something is on fire when
       | it could just flow smoothly into the team's normal workflow.
        
       | ganoushoreilly wrote:
       | First, Document Document Document just to cover your ass
       | internally (maybe email a recap of problems to yourself).
       | 
       | As for actually addressing the issue, Is there a shared Executive
       | Assistant or Program manager on the teams you're reaching out to?
       | One thing i've had success with is reaching out to one of their
       | senior direct reports (when appropriate). I would usually say
       | something like "Hi, There's an issue with XYZ, what are your
       | thoughts on how we can improve it with the least impact to your
       | team? I'd like to get this in front of Y as soon as possible, any
       | thoughts?" What I found is that people are eager to get brownie
       | points with the boss, leverage that and get your initiative
       | pushed through the team rather than from outside the team. Again,
       | I realize this doesn't work for every situation, but it's
       | helpful.
       | 
       | Sometimes you just have to socially engineer the outcome you
       | need.
       | 
       | Good luck!
        
       | superchroma wrote:
       | Try booking a virtual meeting with relevant stakeholders and get
       | them on a call? People often ignore emails but will attend to
       | meeting requests.
        
       | r_hoods_ghost wrote:
       | Have you tried calling them on an actual phone (not Teams, Slack
       | etc.) instead of emailing or messaging? Or reaching out to one of
       | their direct reports and asking what the best way of getting hold
       | of them is? If you're a new hire in a large company, do the
       | people you are trying to contact know who you are already or are
       | you "cold calling / emailing" them? Have you introduced yourself?
       | This was easier in the before times when you could stick your
       | head round theor door. I know several seniors who screen their
       | emails to the extent that if you're not on their mental list, or
       | have a rule that allows you to bypass their mail filter, then
       | you're not getting a response. Hell I've done this myself
       | sometimes. Executives, and seniors generally, rarely pay any
       | attention to Teams Messages or other sorts of IMs as their time
       | and attention is in short supply.
        
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       (page generated 2022-08-19 23:02 UTC)