Polite Paradise

My work recently switched to email based on Office 365 Outlook, and I notice that many messages have some kind of standard reply text suggestions at the bottom. I guess you can just click on these and send a reply without even bothering to type out "Thank you" or "I'll put you on the schedule"? I haven't really messed with it yet.

I'm looking at an email right now, which I can tell is just an informative note about someone's plans that does not require a response unless I disagree with him. The suggested replies are "Thank you for the schedule," "You are on the schedule," and "Thank you for the info." I'm not going to reply at all--but these suggestions could easily make people think a reply is desired or necessary.

I wonder what prompted this extra feature? Does someone actually say, "I want to send more one-line generic 'thank you' emails, but I just don't have the time to type them"? Like, if you really judge that someone is looking for appreciation or acknowledgment for their message, how hard is it to type something yourself? And if you honestly don't have time to type it, consider that maybe the other person really doesn't have time to read it, either...

AliciaLynette, thanks! Can you give an example of when you might use the auto-options instead of typing something?

I remember a few years ago, "read receipts" were in vogue for emails. Like you'd open the email and this thing would pop up and say, "The sender has requested a read receipt. Please click yes or no to indicate you've read the email." Or something like that. I think the few times I encountered one, I was a bit freaked out, and I would click no--like, no, don't be spyin' on me, computer! But, remembering that the read receipt had been asked for, I would usually reply to the email in my own words, so the sender would indeed know I'd read it. It was never a big thing in my line of work, so I never had to develop a "sensible protocol" for them or anything.

But it does seem like, as AliciaLynette says, somebody somewhere wasn't getting replies they needed--enough people that the email companies keep coming up with different tools to prompt people to reply. It would probably be difficult to figure out which was the bigger problem--too many replies, or not enough--and it would be very specific to different companies, industries, and jobs. But really, it's no wonder individuals get confused trying to decide what to do, with "anti-thanks" articles on the one hand, and your email prompting you to reply on the other.

AliciaLynette, thanks! Can you give an example of when you might use the auto-options instead of typing something?

I remember a few years ago, "read receipts" were in vogue for emails. Like you'd open the email and this thing would pop up and say, "The sender has requested a read receipt. Please click yes or no to indicate you've read the email." Or something like that. I think the few times I encountered one, I was a bit freaked out, and I would click no--like, no, don't be spyin' on me, computer! But, remembering that the read receipt had been asked for, I would usually reply to the email in my own words, so the sender would indeed know I'd read it. It was never a big thing in my line of work, so I never had to develop a "sensible protocol" for them or anything.

But it does seem like, as AliciaLynette says, somebody somewhere wasn't getting replies they needed--enough people that the email companies keep coming up with different tools to prompt people to reply. It would probably be difficult to figure out which was the bigger problem--too many replies, or not enough--and it would be very specific to different companies, industries, and jobs. But really, it's no wonder individuals get confused trying to decide what to do, with "anti-thanks" articles on the one hand, and your email prompting you to reply on the other.

Mostly I used it during our house search/house move, because we dealt with the council as well as lettings agencies so sometimes we'd get emails that came in as we were rushing off to do something with the move, so having an option to just click a button that said 'Thanks', or 'I will get back to you' rather than writing/sending an email right that second was useful!