And they think replying emails are so easy...

Just to share only an area of my work with you. The most easiest task among the rest of my job scope is replying general emails, as easy as it is spelt out by the two words. I was given this task (replying general enquiries) since the 1st day I joined. The manager (ex) told me that that is to let me familarise with the procedures and operation of our dept. Previously this email account was handled by her, then passed on to another new colleague, and when she thus became a "seasoned" worker, this was pass down to the then new comer, Me.

There were ways of standard replies, standard styles, follow ups, even if it means to forward the email to someone else, you must firstly know who or which dept to forward to.

During the super peak period, we could be receiving 50 to 80 emails per day, among which are direct enquires, a handful needs more attention, some are written in foreign languages, some enquires need answers from all over the office before I could reply the enquire. Besides trying hard to clear this incoming emails, I may just cleared one and then received another new one. This could go on and one if one do not know when to stop and make way for other pending work on the table.

Recently during the appraisal, my senior manager told me that this area is not going to help me in my career advancement and perhaps, another person could be roped in to share this task with me. I am more than happy to agree. So one is tasked to reply in the mornings, another (me) is tasked to reply in the afternoons. And that's when more problems arised. Because the other party thought she is only tasked to reply those emails timed MORNING and she left the rest unanswered. Then there was a rise of read messages in the inbox but when I checked if they have been replied, surprisingly, no.

This could get quite out of hand if the emails accumulated and roll like a snow ball. Hence, I came to a halt and took this matter up by writing a mass email to everyone:


Dear Colleagues


This is to inform you that if you have the assess to the Generic Account, please do not unmark the incoming emails as read messages if no action/s were taken to replying the email.

Usually, a read message is assumed to be action/s has/have been taken and should also be dragged away from the inbox and transfer to the deleted folder. Some read messages which require follow up action will be flagged and retain in the inbox folder until case is closed before they were dragged into the deleted folder.

Currently, there is a mixture of read and unread emails and I have to tally them with the emails in the sent items to check if actions have been taken or if follow up actions are needed.

May I propose the following in order to standardize our SOPs and to avoid missing out replying or overlapping of replying to the same email?

SOPs to replying emails in the generic email account:

• Delete any advertisements (eg seminar, workshop advertisements etc) or junk emails from the Inbox.

• Reply email that came in first (first in, first out) regardless of the date/time we received them.

• Drag the replied email to deleted folder once action has been taken.

• Our email addressis listed under the website http://www.xxxx.com Therefore, there are general enquires forwarded to us via the http://www.xxxx.com/ with the subject head “RE: xxxx”. These emails are not junk emails (they may be found under the “Junk Folder”) and has to be replied as well. Once the email is replied, please drag it out from the “Sent items” and drop it into the folder named “xxx”

• Check “Junk Folder” for any enquires that requires action/s, if there is/are, “Unjunk” them and drag it back to inbox

• Emails that are forwarded to other colleagues to follow up, please flag it out with their names and mark as “read message”. (Dear all, if you have received a forwarded email via the xxx, please cc your reply (to enquirer) to xxx so that we know action has been taken and we could delete the email from the inbox).

• Emails written in mandarin, I will reply (in English), written in malay language, xxx, please assist (reply in English as well).

• Emails written in other foreign languages, reply back in English to request enquirer to write back again in English so that we could help them with their questions.

• Email replies by enquirer with further enquires, relevant staff has to do the follow up work until the case is closed.


During the peak periods (eg the period nearer the opening of application exercise to the closing date), in order to expedite replying to these enquires, emails from this generic account may be directly forwarded to relevant staff to follow up (xxx and I will try to minimize this forwarding unless there are really a lot of emails to be attended to, so please bear with us if you receive couple of emails forwarded to you from xxx).

Please let me or xxx know if there is/are any better suggestions in order to efficiently reply those general enquires.


The funny thing is, I am replying these general enquires not related to my work area but my colleague's area and to think some of them thought replying emails are so easy...