Reading comprehension has gone down the tubes. I dunno if it’s from people watching too many TikToks and their attention span can’t handle reading more than one sentence anymore, or what, but I have definitely noticed a change in people’s ability to read and understand the content of what they just read.

Where I work, my old boss never wrote anything down, did not like to communicate via email, and insisted on phone calls/verbal meetings instead. When they announced they were taking a new job, we begged them to create an SOP of all the things they did with detailed instructions because NONE of it had ever been written down. We were told no, they couldn’t do that. No explanation other than “I can’t.” And I’m convinced that they simply couldn’t read, or could BARELY read.

So I created the SOP instead, detailed as hell, everything in one place. Sections, subsections, hyperlinks, it’s all there. 2 new employees come into the office, I’m supposed to train them. I do, and I show them the SOP, tell them “everything you need to know is in this SOP”, so that AFTER I train them, they can reference it.

They never reference it, ever. They ask me how to do the things they’ve forgotten instead. I just point them to the correct section in the SOP and tell them to read it. BUT THEY DON’T READ. It’s insane! How do they get by in life in general!?

Yes

People are lazy, they get so many emails each day, they couldn’t be bothered reading messages properly. I have turned into a cynical annoying person and write emails with large clear action points like this:

Hi, I have some comments and questions.

Please answer 2 (two) questions so that I can proceed with my part of this work. Without an answer to both, no more work will be done and the project will be on hold.

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1. Yes or no- Does this mean that the flibbertygibbet must be completed first?

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2. You need to provide further information on the doohickey because there is not enough detail for me to be able to goober the whatchamacallit

And then keep forwarding the original email every day until I get the required information. When the boss asks why no progress has been made, I can show him the email trail asking for information.

Cover your ass, keep asking the same questions until you get an answer.

I started listing the questions as 1. 2. 3. And so on. Which helped a lot.

Human communication isn’t perfect. Some people have too many emails. Others need cues only audio visual interaction can provide to quickly parse info.

Use numbering, paragraphs etc.

Its their responsibility to read shit but its yours to be clear and concise.

Because people choose the easiest question to answer. You can’t change people, but you can change how you communicate.

No.

Hi based on you current post,

Why do people insist on answering only one question?

**Do people just not read? ** I would say most people have a lot to read, especially emails, I get dozens of them daily, archive a few thousands yearly. So I will gloss over, see if it’s addressed to me, of not I will probably wait until it becomes my problem to react/reply

Are people thatLazy? No people are busy, is this the same question as the first, out a request for alternatives causes to not reading?

What is going on? This question is vague, I see no point in replying, except maybe an opportunity to troll, or belittle you in this email that had now accumulated 30 people over 7 departments, and possibly one or two customer that were involved a week ago when the thread was about something entirely different.

In short, be specific, and format your message for readability. ;

Name whoever you expect to reply. Split your questions.
Make sure they’re actual questions you need definitive answers to.

I make a point to ask one question.

First I ask it as the first line.

Then I elaborate on the question, what I mean, and why I’m asking in the body of the email.

Then the last a paragraph is restating the question in a different wording.

If you want to communicate clearly, then put effort into avoiding all ambiguity. If you have many questions, write many emails.

Yeah this drives me crazy. It’s to the point where I have to drip feed my questions one after the other sometimes. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

My rule is more than 2 questions and it’s a phone call.

Put the questions in bullet points so they’re easily visible. If it’s part of a paragraph, it’s getting lost.

Step 1. Stop emailing my boss.

Step 2. Recognize that if you’re thorough and verbose, people’s eyes will glaze over and they won’t actually read what you send. Conversely, if you’re concise and direct, people will complain that you’re aloof and not sharing information.

Step 3. Resign yourself to things only getting worse as you get older.

The reader might think that your questions are overlaping, making adressing every question redundant. You might want clarity. The reader thinks you can figure it out based on their one answer. They don’t want to spend the time to confirm that which you already have the tools to get to yourself.

Few people can focus enough to read.

I work in a technical field. In the past few years I’ve learned that interacting by email usually requires one-line sentences or bullet points, with any questions being numbered. No fluff, no secondary thoughts or possibilities. Keep it as minimal as possible.

It still fails to elicit a coherent response about half the time, but it’s the best I’ve found so far.

It didn’t use to be like this. But what’s to blame; screen addiction, microplastics, covid, increased stress, … ?