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.

  • RattlerSix@lemmy.world
    612·
    11 days ago

    “Do people just not read? Are people that lazy? What is going on?”

    Not much, what is going on with you?

  • mavu@discuss.tchncs.de
    574·
    11 days ago

    I KNOW THIS ONE AND THE ANSWER IS : IT"S MICROSOFT’S FAULT.

    Back in the day when Email first became popular, it was normal and accepted use to do “in-line-quoting”. You would hit “reply” and get the text of the original mail with a quote character, mostly “>” in the begining of the line. Then you would put some empty lines at the point where you wanted to answer/comment and type your reply in the middle of the email you received, easily giving context to your words, and making it obvious to what this comment relates, while also showing which part was by the sender and which by you (due to the quotation symbols)

    This was a very good system, and then came MICROSOFT OUTLOOK

    and they defaulted to giving you a empty page when clicking reply and just dumping the whole mail you replied to somewhere below, out of sight.

    everyone using Outlook started “top-posting” to the annoyance of every intelligent being in the galaxy, but because Outlook was the first email experience many people had, the culture of in-line-quoting was destroyed by the unwashed microsoft masses.

    fast-forward to today, where a young person (that is below 50) posts about a topic just to vent, and a old person (over 9000) replies with a sincere history lessen from a time where even email were better.

    yours truely,

    someone who is still salty about that and just decided to make a youtube rant about it.

      • Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world
        72·
        11 days ago

        They probably didn’t link it by default because of Rule 4. However, I think there should be an exception when other users ask for links. (Maybe the rule should be, “No unsolicited self promotion”?)

        For the record, I would also like to see this rant.

      • mavu@discuss.tchncs.de
        3·
        11 days ago

        I said I **will **make one, and as soon as I **did ** i will post the link (*)

        (*) as a person with ADHD, the chances of both those things happening before the heat death of the universe indistinguishable from zero.

    • bss03@infosec.pubEnglish
      10·
      11 days ago

      It reverses the natural flow of the conversation.

      Why is top-posting so bad?

      Top-posting.

      What’s the worst thing I can do when writing a reply to the mailing list?

    • octobob@lemmy.ml
      7·
      11 days ago

      I’m a younger person (32) and didn’t know about this norm until I saw an older person doing it. Now I do it as well but make it obvious what the intent is.

      For example:

      Hello (person),

      See responses below in red

      Blah blah blah original email text

      Red text

      Blah blah blah

      Red text

      Etc.

      It works really well. Said person will even respond in green to my red. We do all this in new outlook, which to be fair, is still a mess for other reasons. Don’t even get me started on the search lol

    • jagged_circle@feddit.nlEnglish
      2·
      11 days ago

      I dont use ms products, but I can’t believe that’s the default. Very rarely does someone reply to me without the message quoted. And most still quote lines manually with >

    • ikidd@lemmy.worldEnglish
      42·
      11 days ago

      Honestly, what I would like and I’ve never seen is a 2-pane reply window; left side is the reply, blank, and the right side is the previous emal. Both panes are scrollable, and if you highlight something on the right side, there’s a <— button in between that lets you shoot that text to the reply pane as a quote then continue composing as usual.

      That might be nice for replies on social media like this, too.

  • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
    462·
    12 days ago

    Considering your wording in the last paragraph, I’m going to guess that your writing style is frequently overwhelming. Making sure that questions are clearly isolated (I’d suggest using numeric lists or bullet points) makes it clear what response you’re expecting.

    Additionally, if you’re asking several difficult questions, it’s likely that people will lose the thread partway through.

    • watson387@sopuli.xyz
      17·
      12 days ago

      This. It’s pretty common in my industry for people to either copy and paste your bullets into their reply and put their responses directly after each or edit your original email in the chain with the answers in red below the bullets.

    • faltryka@lemmy.world
      12·
      12 days ago

      This is what I was thinking too. Failure to exercise brevity is the leading cause of people not having the time for your email.

    • Pamasich@kbin.earth
      6·
      11 days ago

      Considering your wording in the last paragraph

      I’m really confused by people’s reaction to OP here. I agree that I personally don’t share OP’s experiences, but what’s wrong with that last paragraph? It’s not overwhelming at all, so how does it indicate that their writing style is overwhelming? (I know MINE is, no need to point that out)

      If people have trouble understanding it, then reading comprehension must really be at rock bottom.

      I agree that formatting is important with l proper text length, but this is literally two lines, this isn’t in need of bullet points.

      • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
        5·
        11 days ago

        If people have trouble understanding it, then reading comprehension must really be at rock bottom.

        If 90% of people have bad reading comprehension then it doesn’t do much for anyone to point that out and stick to the way you are writing instead of making it understandable to everyone.

      • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
        11·
        11 days ago

        OP’s last paragraph contains three question marks and essentially one question - the first is their actual question with the following two being escalating statements. If you threw this into a work email with five other questions some people’s brains would seize up and just refuse to answer more than one question because they’re not certain if there are six or eight genuine questions.

        In life and especially a professional setting we’re interacting with people in the top 1% of communication skills… and the bottom 25%.

    • someacnt@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      11 days ago

      Not OP, but I experience difficulty articulating what I mean while staying formal. How to improve?

      • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
        2·
        11 days ago

        Bullet points. If you don’t have a rapport spell things out paragraph style and then finish the email off with something like this…

        So considering the above I’d like to get your opinion on these points:

        1. Do you think the widget should be blue or orange?

        2. Given the expected market impact do we want to bring in PR for our e-widget announcement?

    • andrewta@lemmy.worldOP
      24·
      12 days ago

      I’m sorry but there is no difference between putting them in bullet points, or typing like I did. People need to learn to read.

      Side note :

      I’ve tried bullet points.

      I’ve tried putting multiple return carriages between each question.

      I’ve putting all the questions end on end

      and it makes no difference end result is the same.

      Add in a lot of the other comments saying they have the same problem it isn’t just me

      • meyotch@slrpnk.net
        81·
        12 days ago

        Your own report suggests there is a difference. People aren’t answering your questions. You do not have their attention apparently.

        The burden is on you to get your questions answered. Other people have other concerns. Like it or not, you have to do the work of getting these answers. You may need to have a conversation instead of a list of demands.

        Perhaps try an email thread instead of a single monolithic email?

        Open the thread with a single key question. Listen to their reply. Does your next question still pertain? Then ask it in your reply.

        People are not vending machines that contain answers you must shake out of them. A proper relationship, even if just email, is still the best way to achieve your goals.

        My two cents as a person who experienced such frustrations early in my career.

      • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
        3·
        11 days ago

        People need to learn to read.

        But it seems you’re the one having the issue. Rather than hoping people will learn to read better it might be a better option to write in a way that caters to those bad readers.

      • Bob Robertson IX @discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        21·
        11 days ago

        Try being more direct, you can still write out your whole email with the full description, but put in a section somewhere that’s easy to see that’s labeled as “QUESTIONS” and then enumerate the questions you want answered. I often will have the whole section bold and further highlight important words in red. This makes it easier for people to answer inline on the reply and helps ensure questions weren’t missed.

        The truth is, most people don’t like the ‘email’ part of the job and may only check it once or twice a day and I’d most likely just skimming through several messages and not fully devoting much time to each message. By making it easier for them to reply you end up with a better result.

        You can also use this when you expect someone to take action from your email. Let them know precisely what you want them to do, and make it very easy to find ‘The Ask’.

        EDIT: Or, you can just downvote any comments that actually offer suggestions and stay of the opinion that everyone else is wrong and only you are correct.

  • Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.worldEnglish
    311·
    11 days ago

    It’s not that they “insist” on not answering, they just have limited reading comprehension and/or attention span. With experience you learn to ask exactly one question in an email, and maybe you’ll get an answer some of the time, and if you’re lucky it will be coherent.

    • douglasg14b@lemmy.world
      14·
      11 days ago

      It really is a sad State of affairs that reading comprehension is so bad that people can’t answer questions in written form.

      I mean it’s literally written down you can’t miss it.

      And to clarify this is more of me complaining because I’ve experienced this a lot. It’s most apparent in online discussions, where seemingly a majority of what you say gets completely skipped missed or misinterpreted and replies often focus on just a couple words of your statement instead of understanding sometimes even just a whole paragraph.

  • DirigibleProtein@aussie.zone
    19·
    11 days ago

    People are lazy, they get so many emails each day, they couldn’t be bothered reading messages properly. I have turned into a cynical annoying person and write emails with large clear action points like this:

    Hi, I have some comments and questions.

    Please answer 2 (two) questions so that I can proceed with my part of this work. Without an answer to both, no more work will be done and the project will be on hold.

    Consequatur doloribus eaque ut quia veniam est ut. Vitae assumenda sed quisquam omnis dolores nesciunt fuga. Autem non sint minus sed quia. Aspernatur tenetur quis nostrum repellendus nostrum est qui. Sint aliquid est distinctio laudantium.

    1. Yes or no- Does this mean that the flibbertygibbet must be completed first?

    Reiciendis quia qui quia quo hic commodi molestiae vel. Ipsam ut quia et voluptates quaerat voluptatibus neque recusandae. Et fuga necessitatibus rerum debitis. Repellat facilis possimus ab sed eos doloremque. Ut rerum aut corporis. Cum voluptatem praesentium error.

    2. You need to provide further information on the doohickey because there is not enough detail for me to be able to goober the whatchamacallit

    And then keep forwarding the original email every day until I get the required information. When the boss asks why no progress has been made, I can show him the email trail asking for information.

    Cover your ass, keep asking the same questions until you get an answer.

    • bss03@infosec.pubEnglish
      1·
      11 days ago

      1. No, we can test groksponk without flibbertygibbet. But, when rolling to production, flubbertygibbet will need to be in place before grokspunk due to how the gonksponk end-user documentation is written (at least, for now).

      2. Oh, sorry, “doohicky” is how me and my team call them. They are actually <link to ISO specification for purchase>, specifically chapter 4, section 2 (in my 2012 copy it is titled “Hippydip Operations and Serialization”). Hopefully that connects well with the existing goober documentation, but let me know if you need further details/clarification.

  • TheUniverseandNetworks@lemmy.world
    17·
    10 days ago

    Been doing email since it began. Same frustrations.

    Solutions (workarounds):

    1. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. If I need to ask a question, use a phone call or go to their desk, or (shudder) make a meeting.
  • grasshopper_mouse@lemmy.world
    151·
    11 days ago

    Reading comprehension has gone down the tubes. I dunno if it’s from people watching too many TikToks and their attention span can’t handle reading more than one sentence anymore, or what, but I have definitely noticed a change in people’s ability to read and understand the content of what they just read.

    Where I work, my old boss never wrote anything down, did not like to communicate via email, and insisted on phone calls/verbal meetings instead. When they announced they were taking a new job, we begged them to create an SOP of all the things they did with detailed instructions because NONE of it had ever been written down. We were told no, they couldn’t do that. No explanation other than “I can’t.” And I’m convinced that they simply couldn’t read, or could BARELY read.

    So I created the SOP instead, detailed as hell, everything in one place. Sections, subsections, hyperlinks, it’s all there. 2 new employees come into the office, I’m supposed to train them. I do, and I show them the SOP, tell them “everything you need to know is in this SOP”, so that AFTER I train them, they can reference it.

    They never reference it, ever. They ask me how to do the things they’ve forgotten instead. I just point them to the correct section in the SOP and tell them to read it. BUT THEY DON’T READ. It’s insane! How do they get by in life in general!?

    • Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world
      5·
      11 days ago

      You’re right. The illiteracy is everywhere. It’s a very troubling sign.

      I wonder, were there any other points in history, post-literacy, where a significant amount of people went to school yet still lacked literacy skills? If it has happened, would it even be recorded? Or is this aspect of modern society truly novel?

      It’d be nice to know how such a situation would’ve been rectified in the past, but I get the feeling the solution would be the same thing I’ve been calling for since my own childhood - a comprehensive public educational system with a focus on critical thinking.

      • grasshopper_mouse@lemmy.world
        2·
        11 days ago

        It would be interesting to see if it’s ever happened in the past, for sure. I too assumed it was due to poor education, but the three people I mentioned (my old boss and the 2 new coworkers) all came from different areas of the U.S. and are each in different generations (1 Boomer, 1 Gen X, 1 Millennial), so they all have very different backgrounds/education experiences, yet they ALL struggle to read anything longer than a single sentence. It’s infuriating. I try to be patient, because hey, we all have our thing we suck at, but it’s honestly a little scary that they and so many other are out there not following directions simply because they can’t read them.

      • douglasg14b@lemmy.world
        2·
        11 days ago

        It’s especially bad when you work in an experienced field where a primary job function is reading comprehension (software engineering). And you have folks who are supposed to be software engineers who can’t seem to read or understand documentation. Never mind being able to productively engage in the various forms of debate that come along with any engineering practice.

      • milicent_bystandr@lemm.ee
        3·
        11 days ago

        On average, 79% of U.S. adults nationwide are literate in 2024.

        Ignoring the slightly superfluous ‘average’, but… Wow. I’m surprised. I guess there’s a lot of people in far rural areas, or impoverished, or just surfing is their life (California has the lowest adult literacy!), who never learnt to read.

        • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
          21·
          10 days ago

          In CA the inland is full of dumb rednecks and the coast is full of smart immigrants.

          CA probably has the highest literacy rate of any state…in Hindi, or Mandarin lol

    • douglasg14b@lemmy.world
      3·
      11 days ago

      The level of frustration from online discussions when the things you say are entirely missed or misinterpreted is a great example of this.

      Even mildly complex topics that touch anything politically charged or emotionally charged tend to be subject to groupthink dynamics in a format where group think is largely just a result of poor reading comprehension.

  • Brkdncr@lemmy.world
    13·
    11 days ago

    I will put 3 simple 1 sentence questions in a numbered list and get a single answer back.

    Idgaf any more I just copy/paste the same 3 questions and send it back.

    • ximtor@lemm.ee
      9·
      10 days ago

      I hate when i do that and they still refuse to answer more than one

      • ChapulinColorado@lemmy.world
        5·
        10 days ago

        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.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
    121·
    12 days ago

    You can get mad at everyone else or you can start playing to the lowest common denominator.

    1. Question 1

    2. Question 2

    3. Question 3