I received this question from a busy professional:

 What should you do if your boss doesn’t acknowledge or respond to your emails and text messages?

Since I don’t know the specifics, how often you are emailing or texting, or what time of day/night it is, my answer may not fit your specific situation. But here it goes.

Put yourself in their shoes

Acknowledge your boss is a busy person and may have many employees, issues and departments to oversee. For example – If he/she has 12 people he supervises, and each of those 12 people emails and text messages him as much as you do — his inbox is out of control. He is also dealing with his superiors and executive suite.

Therefore – put on your thinking cap on how you can be more of a service to him. Even though email and text are convenient to you – it may not be your boss’ preferred method of communication.

My recommendation is to do the following:

Assume your emails are being seen. Always include in your emails, the actions you plan to take (and date of when you are going to move forward with your plan). Clearly convey that there is no need for him to respond if he agrees with your proposed next steps. This way, he can see that you are handling the situation without his intervention. If you are going in the wrong direction, he will intercede.

Instead of sending multiple emails and texts, send 1 weekly status reports. Cut down on email and texts altogether. Setup weekly or twice monthly one-on-one manager’s meeting with him. Use this one meeting to discuss the collecting things you would cover in your several emails and texts. One-on-One meetings should be in person or via virtual webcam/zoom/etc technology. In a pinch, it can be by phone. You need to set this up as a repeating meeting on the same day/time and get it on his calendar.

In the first one-on-one meeting, ask him what’s the best way to communicate with him. What is his preference (including communication type, time of day, and day of week)? Does he want weekly email status reports, would he prefer a weekly phone-message with the status on ongoing projects, how should you convey urgent issues?

In your one-on-one meetings, continually ask him how you can help him with the things that are on his plate? Does he need someone to collect everyone else’ weekly status reports? Would you like a group/departmental status reports combined and separated into Urgent Action/ Requested Action by Date/ and Informational sections? Does he want you to go over the department status reports during your regularly scheduled one-on-one meetings with him?

Start using your Subject line more effectively. Use the headline/Subject line of your email to convey the urgency of the message. This allows him to quickly prioritize his inbox. For instance:

• Regular Status Report (no urgency – informational only)
• Request input by XX date (for things you need his input)
• Pick up the phone or visit his office on urgent matters

Once you put on the cap of “how I can be of more service” — I am confident that you can imagine all sorts of things you can be doing to make a positive contribution to your boss and department.

Once again – I don’t know the specifics of your situation. These recommendations may not fit.

If you need want to discuss in more detail, please setup a one-on-one consult session.

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