Have you devised a way to grab the attention of your boss in the titles of your emails?
Has your boss told you how to flag an email as urgent so they read it?
Have you???

I’ve seen numerous tips by experts on how to grab attention , signal urgency with the subject line of the email ( I particularly like the tip to write “read this!” as the first words on the subject line – Really??what else is an email for?)

It is apparently a real problem.
No it isn’t!! We are the problem!

What is really behind this? Two things:

1. People are getting way too many emails and many of them are not important ( honestly, if its not of some level of urgency for your boss, maybe they don’t need to be copied in). Don’t be a culprit in adding to this problem. Hold yourself accountable to think carefully before sending an email or copying in so many people ( to whom is the email really being directed ?)

2. The boss has serious time management and communication skill issues. Or they don’t want to delegate and need to be in the loop on everything. Don’t be that person. If you have email overload, step back and assess the symptoms. It is likely more about you than it is about them. Make a change!

But please, don’t solve the problem by telling your people you will be glad to be responsive to them with only the subset of emails they send you that has your special subject line Urgent code. What you are really telling them is that you are not accessible, that you won’t be reading their emails, and that responsiveness is a subset of your value-system.

Tackle the problem.