Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2020 February 10

= February 10 =

About Writing Emails Time
Is there some ethics in time of writing mail? I meant to ask the time at which email should have delivered in the receivers mailbox? For e.g. 10 to 4 pm. Does it matter if someone may not reply the mail received at night? Any specific things that may relate?

Thankyou! :) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Learnerktm (talk • contribs) 09:08, 10 February 2020 (UTC)


 * Ethics are based on the group of people forming those ethics. Therefore, it entirely depends on the group. One group might find it offensive if you do not reply to any and all emails within a few minutes. Another group will assume it is normal to ignore almost all emails for months on end. 135.84.167.41 (talk) 13:03, 10 February 2020 (UTC)


 * IMHO a sender in not responsible for the delivery time. It's true that most email is delivered almost instantly across the world. However, that's never guaranteed. Anyway the receiver is not obliged to keep their email client software open all the time. Even if they do, they do not have to sit in front of the computer 24×7. So a sender can do little about the time a receiver reads the message.
 * OTOH some people need to be online all the time and have the email client permanently active in their smartphone. Then you can really care to not disturb them, say, in the night time.
 * TBH, in such case I would assume if someone keeps his beeps active night and day, then a beep on my message arrival is desirable at any time, and I wouldn't care much about time of posting. Anyway, you can send a first message with a polite question about preferable time of contact, and then keep your posting restricted to hour pointed by the receiver :) CiaPan (talk) 20:07, 10 February 2020 (UTC)


 * Judging by the time stamps of the e-mail messages I receive, the senders do not pay attention to the expected arrival time in my time zone. Many are messages to a group of recipients scattered through diverse time zones around the globe, so taking the recipients' time zones into account is then a practical impossibility. --Lambiam 20:48, 10 February 2020 (UTC)


 * Thankyou for the replies. :) Learnerktm  05:52, 11 February 2020 (UTC)


 * When it comes to companies, some are now discouraging work related emails from being sent after working hours [//www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12084445] [//www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20180830-what-would-happen-if-we-banned-work-emails-at-the-weekend]. As mentioned in these sources, these may include provisions ensuring that people can avoid checking emails after working hours, or even restrictions preventing them, but they can also include restrictions on sending such emails. Obviously it gets complicated for communications across time-zones although server level restrictions could be adjusted. If you do a search for 'email after hours' you will also find many many discussions on the ethics and other such issues e.g. [//www.cnbc.com/2019/10/28/university-of-sussex-limiting-work-email-after-hours-may-cause-stress.html] [//www.peoplehr.com/blog/2019/01/30/hours-email-policy-might-work-practice/] [//www.fastcompany.com/90426553/why-banning-after-hours-email-is-counterproductive] Nil Einne (talk) 04:17, 12 February 2020 (UTC)


 * As e-mail is inherently a connectionless protocol, why should it matter when e-mails are sent? Successfully delivered but unread messages aren't going anywhere. The recipient can read them at their leisure. J I P  &#124; Talk 12:47, 14 February 2020 (UTC)