Boss says she doesn't reply promptly to emails because she 'needs a lot of time to think' and people can't deal

A charity boss asked if she was being unreasonable for taking more than a day to reply to emails because she needs “a lot of time to think” and the internet unloaded on her.

According to the woman, who posted her concern to Mumsnet under the username Catinthetreeallthetime, she has worked in a “senior management position” for years but has recently come under observation by the board of the charity over her “disorganisation”.

The issue arose after her assistant, who managed her diary and inbox, quit because she found her boss disorganised and hard to work with.

“She stated she found me hard to work with because apparently I’m disorganised and I don’t check my emails,” the woman wrote, adding that the assistant would be “constantly nagging me to reply to this, reply to that.”

But, the woman said she doesn’t “see it as my job to be in my emails all the time” because she feels “it should be more than fine for people to wait for responses to emails”.

“I need a lot of time to think and I hate the modern thing that you have to be on email 24/7,” she explained, before concluding that although she loves her job, she “can’t go on like this” now that the board has started reviewing her time management.

Although the woman was clearly looking for responses commiserating with her struggle of having to respond to emails in a timely manner, she has received the opposite.

In response to the post, more than 200 people have shared their thoughts - and almost none of them are in agreement with the poster.

Many respondents advised the woman to “get with the times” and become more prompt when it comes to emails - especially after she gave the example of not dealing with urgent matters upon a return to the office from leave because she needs to “sit and get my head back in the game”.

“I don’t think it’s reasonable to return from leave (a week?) and not deal with urgent matters for a day,” one person said. “Urgent means they need to be dealt with right away. Your assistant sounds like she was right to me. Sorry.”

Another said: “You didn't look at your emails for a DAY after holiday? Seriously? You must know that's outside of the normal range?”

“Email etiquette is generally emails should be replied to within 4 hours unless your ‘out of office; indicates otherwise,” someone else responded. Were you much longer than 4 hours?

“I'm also in a senior management role and if I told the board of directors I needed 'thinking time' I would be laughed out of the room. I suggest you keep that to yourself!”

Others questioned how the poster managed to hold a senior position if she couldn’t even respond to emails - a bare-minimum requirement - and advised her to find a new job.

“You are in a senior position but you are not prepared to accept the responsibility that comes with it,” one person wrote. “Time to look for a more junior position. I'm in the public sector. I know plenty of people in the third sector. All would regard your attitude as unacceptable.”

Read the replies here.