Promod’s comment follows on from my comment that someone hadn’t replied to a submission-by-email with a short note “Thanks!”. We both know the person, and the relationships are good, but it comes to my mind following two incidents from yesterday.
(1) I was feeling poorly, and “phoned in sick”, which in my case means I spent as much time as possible lying in bed, reading a book, dozing, and occasionally browsing for food and drink, to give my body a chance to recover. It seems to have worked.
(2) I had a not-too-nice response to an innocent email I had sent asking about payment of an invoice.
For both reasons above, I had not replied to my incoming emails that day.
Avoiding an instant reply to the second class is a Good Thing; it prevents me from dashing off a violently reactive response that I’d regret later.
This morning I am calmer and can compose a proper reply. But the remaining eight emails sat in my mailbox overnight.
I am thinking that, if nothing else, I could have a standard line that was pasted into a reply to each of the eight emails saying “I have been ill; I’ll reply to your email tomorrow”, so that each correspondent would know that their email had been received, that I did care about it, and them, and that they weren’t being ignored.
That’s the thing about Common Courtesy. I don’t practice it myself.
I should.
If Common Courtesy Isn't Common, then by practising Common Courtesy I can differentiate myself from all the other consultants out there …
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