Email snubbing: why the new culture of 'no response' at work is bad manners

A rant on the vanishing art of the reply... plus 8 resources to boost your productivity, creativity & focus at work (so you get round to emails in a timely manner!)

A rant about emails by a woman from the typewriter generation!!

Two new trends to report for Spring 2025 team: firstly brown is the new black and secondly no one replies to emails any more. Brown’s return to the catwalk is mildly troubling (it is a bothersome colour to wear) but digital snubbing moving out of the dating world and into the work world is an altogether more serious concern. It is infuriating, perplexing and in my opinion unprofessional. I am mystified by it.

So this is how it goes (and I have double checked this with others so my rant isn’t about people not emailing ME back just for clarification); a PR, colleague, big business, collaborator, follower, corporation or anyone basically from your industry will email you with a question, request or suggestion. You reply with an email which requires further follow up and radio silence ensues. You mail again. Nothing. Days pass, occasionally weeks, you’re left with the frustrating emptiness of a confusing half-finished professional conversation. Often this prevents you getting your work done, or requires a new direction to be taken without any logic behind it.

You’re tempted to go old school and pick up the phone but you know anyone under 45 will have a minor cardiac event if the phone rings during a working day (and it’s not a parent, friend, sibling or parcel delivery person calling).