Follow Up Without Being Annoying

In our career, we are likely to experiment several cases in which we are forgotten or in which we are waiting for a reply on a specific email, but we are not receiving it.

In similar cases, we find ourselves hesitating on whether to contact the concerned person or not, in fear of appearing annoying, or nagging or even imposing.

However, while it is bad to have someone go back on their word, it’s always better to know that’s the case, other than waiting endlessly for a response and hoping that your message didn’t end up in the spam folder.

So, here are some tips on how to follow up on the various issues; it would require from you a little extra work, but better to know than keep on waiting or putting hopes.

Here are few situations that you might face and suggestions of solution to get an answer for your email.

1- If you are requesting a favor from a former co-worker, be sensitive to their other work duties, but add a little urgency to the task. Insist on having a deadline, so that you urge that friend to respond.

2- If you need to get a hold of your former boss for an important reference call influencing a future job opportunity, you can send an email suggesting on your former boss to give you several availability dates to be contacted. You can simply say at the end of your email that if it is hard for your former boss to answer the reference call, you can give another contact.

3- If you need to remind someone you met at a networking event about an opportunity that seemed interesting, you can simply send him a second email reminding him of you and of what you talked about, and paving the way for a future collaboration in case the opportunity discussed is no longer available.

4- If you need to contact the friend of a friend, who might help you in your career, you can send him an email stating in it what this common friend told you. You can also suggest three availability dates to sit down and discuss the issue further, or you can give the concerned person more time so that he gets back to you.

These were a few suggestions that may help you to get a response when being inbox-ghosted during your career. This requires you to do some effort, but it is better than keeping things as possibilities, while you deserve much more.

 

The Business Lobby Team