[BeetleB]

>People expect you to have Gmail and Slack open all day and to reply in the 5 minutes.

When I was looking for my last job, I explicitly queried about this:

"Will it be OK if I check my email only 3 times a day (at work)?"

In my previous job, too much work was done through email. Person wants me to do some work and return a plot. I send it to him. Within 5-30 minutes, he has a question about it. I have to respond soon. And it goes on and on - with each email interrupting whatever work I'm doing.

So I don't have "meetings through email" any more. They want to ask me stuff? Let's get in a room and at a fixed time and work through them.

"I keep my messenger app permanently off. Is that a problem?"

>but at the end you are interrupted every 5 minutes by people walking and talking/screaming/laughing about anything.

For me, this is a non-issue, and much preferred to emails and IM's. Especially IM. Also, phone calls are OK too. Why?

With IM, they start a conversation and then suddenly disappear, only to reappear 15 minutes later when I think the issue is closed and have started to work on something. No one does that in person (well, almost no one).

When they come to me in person or call me on the phone, they cannot just browse the Internet while talking. They are mindful of my time. And somehow, I feel they prepare their questions better, too.

[ensignavenger]

-"have to respond soon."

What is it about the email that makes you think you have to respond soon? Is it the culture at the company around email?

I work at a non-technology Fortune 500 in the IT dept. (I work remote, too) and the general expectation is that we check our email 2-4 times a day. Occasionally I go a day going through my inbox once all day, and it has never been a problem.

I suppose it is a company culture issue?

[ryandrake]

Frequent sender of such E-mails chiming in here:

Often when there is a response expectation, I'll explicitly say so in the subject, so that if you're scanning your E-mails it will stick out. Will also specify my default assumption should you not respond. I like to be super clear. Company culture is the product of the people who participate in company culture.

SUBJ: [Reply needed by 5PM] Deadline for project approval approaching

(somewhere in body): Blah, blah, blah. If I do not hear back, I will assume we will go forward with the project.

[BeetleB]

I think the part that is missing in your comment is the company expectation on how often people should check their emails. This is why in my interview I specified something like "Morning, after lunch, and before I head home".

If getting an email like yours, sent at 2pm where a reply is needed by 5pm, then the answer to my question should be "No, checking your email at that interval is not OK".

I'm not going to say your expectation is objectively bad or anything. Some businesses may need to work at a fast pace. Just that I would not want to work there if this is the norm. Frankly, in the places I've worked, I didn't see why it had to be through email vs coming to my office or calling me.

[BeetleB]

>What is it about the email that makes you think you have to respond soon? Is it the culture at the company around email?

Yep. They insist they need answers soon.

(They probably do, but they should just come down to my office or have a proper meeting).

Really, as I said, they're essentially having meetings asynchronously through email.

[bananarepdev]

This. Especially the IM thing. Even if it is something unimportant, any ongoing conversation leaves this "ping" on my head, disabling my ability to focus.