How many emails is to many emails?

Peties Army · 01-26-2022, 10:24 PM

So we had team meeting today. Whole team, 25 employees. One of my team members(I have 5 I’m over) shares screen and he has over 3,700 unread emails in his outlook. Just knowing the level of work he gets he probably is getting 20 emails a day. Now I know he is reading some of them and is either leaving some marked unread or reading them in his second pane so while number is alot but still seems off. Probably my worst employee, been written up before i got there and We have had a few talks in my 6 months about detail and meeting time deadlines so not like he is awful but isn’t great. I figure I’ll just say something to him on one on one. As he is presenting my boss pms and said I need to bring it up to him to make sure he is in top his messages and it doesn’t look great for someone who struggles replying to email to have so many emails.

So my question is what’s the best chain letter you’ve ever gotten? I once got one that said forward this to five people to open a surprise and it was a kitten waving.

BostonNut · 01-26-2022, 10:37 PM

You oversee five people?

Siberian13 · 01-26-2022, 10:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BostonNut

You oversee five people?

Yeah that can’t be good.

Peties Army · 01-26-2022, 10:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BostonNut

You oversee five people?

Oh man, here comes the mocking.

Yes.

Siberian13 · 01-26-2022, 10:40 PM

To answer the thread title question - you should be able to get through all your emails on a daily basis. Similar to paying someone for a card within 24 hours. Don’t be lazy and just get it done.

Peties Army · 01-26-2022, 10:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Siberian13

To answer the thread title question - you should be able to get through all your emails on a daily basis. Similar to paying someone for a card within 24 hours. Don’t be lazy and just get it done.

Oh I don’t really care about that. I’ll just tell him what was said and thst I know he reads thrn but he needs to clean up better when presenting(that’s kind of my biggest takeaway, don’t be stupid. Another guy in a different group was presenting last month and he had espn open in a tab). Just don’t be a dumb dumb

He does ok work it isn’t like he is getting fired but I just wouldn’t be upset if he leaves. Nice enough kid

TheFrenzy · 01-26-2022, 11:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peties Army

...he has over 3,700 unread emails in his outlook. Just knowing the level of work he gets he probably is getting 20 emails a day.

Personally I'm a fan of keeping an empty inbox with everything either in folders or trashed.

But I know some people have some weird email habits and personal workflows.

Peties Army · 01-26-2022, 11:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheFrenzy

Personally I'm a fan of keeping an empty inbox with everything either in folders or trashed.

But I know some people have some weird email habits and personal workflows.

Like my pubes my email box is clean

kerg · 01-26-2022, 11:28 PM

My inbox is horrible for work. I probably get 300+ emails a day, many of which are automated system generated emails from various tools. Try to keep on top of it, but I don't always clean out the system 'junk' so.. if I had a bunch of unread, wouldn't be surprising. I try to setup scripts to move stuff, but always seems like they invent new email streams for notifications. The important stuff (personalized stuff) I get to.

As for chain emails.. we once had someone that sent out an email to most of the people in the corporation (like 30k+ people) which caused a 5 hour crap fest of 'stop replying to everyone', 'take me off the chain' and jokes galore. Company shut down email for an hour so they could do a purge and stop the flood...

Siberian13 · 01-26-2022, 11:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peties Army

Like my pubes my email box is clean

Give it time. They’ll start coming in soon.

Peties Army · 01-27-2022, 12:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kerg

My inbox is horrible for work. I probably get 300+ emails a day, many of which are automated system generated emails from various tools. Try to keep on top of it, but I don't always clean out the system 'junk' so.. if I had a bunch of unread, wouldn't be surprising. I try to setup scripts to move stuff, but always seems like they invent new email streams for notifications. The important stuff (personalized stuff) I get to.

As for chain emails.. we once had someone that sent out an email to most of the people in the corporation (like 30k+ people) which caused a 5 hour crap fest of 'stop replying to everyone', 'take me off the chain' and jokes galore. Company shut down email for an hour so they could do a purge and stop the flood...

If I get an email with ten people on it and it’s not addressed to me it goes straight into special filing cabinet, the waste paper basket.

That’s an office joke. First episode

fulltritty · 01-27-2022, 06:10 AM

Now we know where glen87 works since he comments often about his thousands of unread e-mails.

jcardstore · 01-27-2022, 07:59 AM

I currently have 56,715 unread emails in my personal inbox.

I've got maybe 1000 something unread at work. I get a couple hundred emails a day and most are notifications that don't require anything from me. I have 20+ folders for all the automated notifications and stuff and I clean them out once a week or so.

BostonNut · 01-27-2022, 08:58 AM

Email is the worst form of communication. If you need me pick up the phone and call me or come find me. Otherwise I’ll get to your email when my time allows me to.

People are so damn lazy.

TheFrenzy · 01-27-2022, 09:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BostonNut

If you need me pick up the phone and call me

Too much solicitation.

Shoot me a text or don’t expect to hear from me.

kerg · 01-27-2022, 09:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peties Army

If I get an email with ten people on it and it’s not addressed to me

I think 10 is the bare minimum.

The backup to the person sending
The person addressed to
The addressee's manager
The addressee's backup
The manager of the person sending
The person who is actually interested in the response
The manager of the person who is actually interested in the response
The business analyst
The project manager

and finally...

The person who has nothing to do with any of this, but is the one person that can provide an answer

Our company is horrible with shotgunning emails out in hopes of getting someone to answer, but usually it is the same 2 people answering anyways while the rest ignore or don't know.

Peties Army · 01-27-2022, 09:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BostonNut

Email is the worst form of communication. If you need me pick up the phone and call me or come find me. Otherwise I’ll get to your email when my time allows me to.

People are so damn lazy.

The best are “ping” email alert then phone rings “hey did you get my last email?”

mainerunr · 01-27-2022, 09:50 AM

My inbox has 3900 emails that I have not filed into folders...but only 2 unread. My sent items has over 13,000 items. The unfiled emails go back to january 2019, I've been slowly picking away at filing them when I have time but we've been so busy that I barely have time to file this week's emails.

I've got 30gb of archived emails on the server and another 27gb active right now.

Last vacation my boss took we had to go into his email and cull some to make space because he had used his entire allotment (when we were on a local outlook server, we had to keep him from using all the space and making it so no one could get email, one of the reasons we switched).

My boss also has a tendency to not bother looking to see who an email was sent to and then forward the email to the person who needs to deal with it when they were copied on the email he received...at least that makes it easy, delete the forwarded email, deal with the original. (my favorite is when he forwards an email that I've already dealt with and copied him on the response...my other favorite is when I've already dealt with an email and he sends a response without talking to me...and it never matches my response)

Peties Army · 01-27-2022, 09:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kerg

I think 10 is the bare minimum.

The backup to the person sending
The person addressed to
The addressee's manager
The addressee's backup
The manager of the person sending
The person who is actually interested in the response
The manager of the person who is actually interested in the response
The business analyst
The project manager

and finally...

The person who has nothing to do with any of this, but is the one person that can provide an answer

Our company is horrible with shotgunning emails out in hopes of getting someone to answer, but usually it is the same 2 people answering anyways while the rest ignore or don't know.

Always one person on there who hasn’t worked in that unit for 3 years but someone randomly at one time kind of remember them maybe doing something sort of like that about 10 years ago

jlzinck · 01-27-2022, 10:45 AM

I get so many e-mails at work it is mind boggling.
80% have nothing to do with me.

I tell people that if then need me to do or understand something I need to see my name in the 1st line of the e-mail.

Our e-mail deletes every 45 days and once a week I delete everything I haven't read.

DiamondDonovan · 01-27-2022, 11:50 AM

Our work culture is to CC' everybody in anything & everything. The Division Manager loves sending out emails to entire mailing lists too.

If I take a week off from work, I'm spending at least half of my first day back going through messages to find out which ones which truly require my attention.

Skipscards · 01-27-2022, 12:51 PM

I always have over 10,000 unread emails in my work inbox. It's not a thing. Your boss is being silly.

Peties Army · 01-27-2022, 02:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skipscards

I always have over 10,000 unread emails in my work inbox. It's not a thing. Your boss is being silly.

Right but everyone knows you are a shitty worker

Chaotic30 · 01-27-2022, 02:01 PM

I file all my emails in my personal daily. I just leave the ones out that I need to answer or forget after 3 months and file it later anyway. If it's so important they'll chase me anyway. We have a group box for the team that gets 1-2k a day. Now thats a fun nightmare.

JeremyNick · 01-27-2022, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peties Army

So we had team meeting today. Whole team, 25 employees. One of my team members(I have 5 I’m over) shares screen and he has over 3,700 unread emails in his outlook. Just knowing the level of work he gets he probably is getting 20 emails a day. Now I know he is reading some of them and is either leaving some marked unread or reading them in his second pane so while number is alot but still seems off. Probably my worst employee, been written up before i got there and We have had a few talks in my 6 months about detail and meeting time deadlines so not like he is awful but isn’t great. I figure I’ll just say something to him on one on one. As he is presenting my boss pms and said I need to bring it up to him to make sure he is in top his messages and it doesn’t look great for someone who struggles replying to email to have so many emails.

So my question is what’s the best chain letter you’ve ever gotten? I once got one that said forward this to five people to open a surprise and it was a kitten waving.

When I worked for a large health insurance company, I got in to work around 7 am one morning and opened my email. There were 568 emails in my inbox from the night before. I regularly got 10-15 emails a day at that point.

Turns out someone had sent an email and cc’d the wrong distribution list. It went out to over 2500 people in the organization. Quickly people started “replying all” with “what is this about”, “why am I on this”, “I think you made a mistake”. Most savvy people realized quickly it was a simple error and didn’t reply, after about 20 minutes people began “replying all” and saying “stop replying to all”. That carried on for quite some time.

It took a good hour and half that morning for that chain to finally die. It was hilarious.

01-26-2022, 10:24 PM	#1
Peties Army Member Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: St. Louis Posts: 19,471 buddywilshire2003	How many emails is to many emails? So we had team meeting today. Whole team, 25 employees. One of my team members(I have 5 I’m over) shares screen and he has over 3,700 unread emails in his outlook. Just knowing the level of work he gets he probably is getting 20 emails a day. Now I know he is reading some of them and is either leaving some marked unread or reading them in his second pane so while number is alot but still seems off. Probably my worst employee, been written up before i got there and We have had a few talks in my 6 months about detail and meeting time deadlines so not like he is awful but isn’t great. I figure I’ll just say something to him on one on one. As he is presenting my boss pms and said I need to bring it up to him to make sure he is in top his messages and it doesn’t look great for someone who struggles replying to email to have so many emails. So my question is what’s the best chain letter you’ve ever gotten? I once got one that said forward this to five people to open a surprise and it was a kitten waving. __________________ Comment of the day “How many bees are killed by mowing?”- Boo

01-26-2022, 10:37 PM	#2
BostonNut Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 61,317	You oversee five people? __________________ "It's true that whenever rectal issues come to mind thoughts of you aren't far behind" - HairySas September 4, 2025 "GD it. I am a doofus." - majestik101 October 16, 2025

01-27-2022, 07:59 AM	#13
jcardstore Member Join Date: Mar 2014 Posts: 21,960 Jcardstore	I currently have 56,715 unread emails in my personal inbox. I've got maybe 1000 something unread at work. I get a couple hundred emails a day and most are notifications that don't require anything from me. I have 20+ folders for all the automated notifications and stuff and I clean them out once a week or so. __________________ Just moonwalking through hell on my last brain cell

01-27-2022, 08:58 AM	#14
BostonNut Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 61,317	Email is the worst form of communication. If you need me pick up the phone and call me or come find me. Otherwise I’ll get to your email when my time allows me to. People are so damn lazy. __________________ "It's true that whenever rectal issues come to mind thoughts of you aren't far behind" - HairySas September 4, 2025 "GD it. I am a doofus." - majestik101 October 16, 2025

01-27-2022, 09:50 AM	#18
mainerunr Member Join Date: May 2011 Posts: 3,558	My inbox has 3900 emails that I have not filed into folders...but only 2 unread. My sent items has over 13,000 items. The unfiled emails go back to january 2019, I've been slowly picking away at filing them when I have time but we've been so busy that I barely have time to file this week's emails. I've got 30gb of archived emails on the server and another 27gb active right now. Last vacation my boss took we had to go into his email and cull some to make space because he had used his entire allotment (when we were on a local outlook server, we had to keep him from using all the space and making it so no one could get email, one of the reasons we switched). My boss also has a tendency to not bother looking to see who an email was sent to and then forward the email to the person who needs to deal with it when they were copied on the email he received...at least that makes it easy, delete the forwarded email, deal with the original. (my favorite is when he forwards an email that I've already dealt with and copied him on the response...my other favorite is when I've already dealt with an email and he sends a response without talking to me...and it never matches my response) Last edited by mainerunr; 01-27-2022 at 09:52 AM.

01-26-2022, 10:40 PM	#5
Siberian13 Member Join Date: Feb 2015 Posts: 77,929 shiller13	To answer the thread title question - you should be able to get through all your emails on a daily basis. Similar to paying someone for a card within 24 hours. Don’t be lazy and just get it done.

01-26-2022, 11:28 PM	#9
kerg Member Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: US Posts: 4,129	My inbox is horrible for work. I probably get 300+ emails a day, many of which are automated system generated emails from various tools. Try to keep on top of it, but I don't always clean out the system 'junk' so.. if I had a bunch of unread, wouldn't be surprising. I try to setup scripts to move stuff, but always seems like they invent new email streams for notifications. The important stuff (personalized stuff) I get to. As for chain emails.. we once had someone that sent out an email to most of the people in the corporation (like 30k+ people) which caused a 5 hour crap fest of 'stop replying to everyone', 'take me off the chain' and jokes galore. Company shut down email for an hour so they could do a purge and stop the flood...

01-27-2022, 06:10 AM	#12
fulltritty Member Join Date: Jun 2013 Location: King George, VA Posts: 78,270	Now we know where glen87 works since he comments often about his thousands of unread e-mails.

01-27-2022, 10:45 AM	#20
jlzinck Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Cape Cod, MA Posts: 35,991 jlzinck jl_zinck	I get so many e-mails at work it is mind boggling. 80% have nothing to do with me. I tell people that if then need me to do or understand something I need to see my name in the 1st line of the e-mail. Our e-mail deletes every 45 days and once a week I delete everything I haven't read. __________________ https://www.youtube.com/user/jonzinck

01-27-2022, 11:50 AM	#21
DiamondDonovan Member Join Date: Sep 2020 Location: Bay Area, CA Posts: 796	Our work culture is to CC' everybody in anything & everything. The Division Manager loves sending out emails to entire mailing lists too. If I take a week off from work, I'm spending at least half of my first day back going through messages to find out which ones which truly require my attention.

01-27-2022, 12:51 PM	#22
Skipscards Member Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: In Tribute To The Great Ryno Posts: 30,145 jlankf2 jmp4	I always have over 10,000 unread emails in my work inbox. It's not a thing. Your boss is being silly. __________________ Go Royals!! #RoyalsIn2015 <---It Happened!! #TEAMZinck Sometimes it is astounding that we are able to persist in a world so full of morons.

01-27-2022, 02:01 PM	#24
Chaotic30 Member Join Date: Nov 2015 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 695	I file all my emails in my personal daily. I just leave the ones out that I need to answer or forget after 3 months and file it later anyway. If it's so important they'll chase me anyway. We have a group box for the team that gets 1-2k a day. Now thats a fun nightmare.