Any tips on how to get people to read and reply to emails?

I send a weekly email reminding staff to contact me regarding leave so I can organise relief along with telling me when they are not available. I don't care why I just need to know they are not available so I don't give them relief.

I nearly told one staff member that she hadn't bothered telling me of the meeting on one of the three previous emails I had sent (it is a weekly recurring meeting) then she will have to miss her meeting. Instead I was the last admin person leaving late today rearranging everything, and I don't get paid for overtime GGRRRR.

My emails are often blunt and to the point which can put people off side, hence why I use a standard email each week, after spending considerable time making it friendly.

Besides using different headings to disguise my weekly emails any tips besides resorting to the bright red, bold 14pt to get my point across?

Make the principal of her school aware of the problems she caused. If possible, ask him or her to mention those emails in a staff meeting. Some teachers are idiots, snobs or otherwise and they just either don't read their emails or they disregard the SSOs.

I agree with lynn, about talking to her supervisors. Are you using read receipts, I use those when I want to make sure certain people are reading my emails. I just put read receipt for everybody, I find that have send a read receipt makes most people read it more carefully.

sally

yep put read receipts on & also talk to the principal, I know there was a similar issue at our school & the principal made it the first point of the staff meeting that staff need to read emails & reply hasnt been a prob since

Totally agree with the girls there. Do just that Aqua and maybe you will start to see a turn around.

The girls have given good advice. good luck getting them to read your emails.

Thanks everyone I am going to raise it again after being stuck at work late today to fill a "last" minute relief. Considering I should have already left the building I was really annoyed.

Going to suggest a new duty to be listed to my job description.... mind reader!

Ohh this is a tough one. Reading between the lines, you arrange leave for teachers from different schools?

I'd be inclined to call (or email) all the principals and ask them to remind staff regularly about what they're required to do if they want to take leave. Better still, send the weekly email to the Principal's PA and ask her to send it out on behalf of him. That will have them reading it.

It might be that you have to give them a bit of tough love and deny a leave request to show that they can't leave things till the last minute.

Good luck!

I have a group of about 8 "relief" teachers that I can call in to work at our school, so realistically it is one principal. They are just painful to deal with and they are certainly being pulled up on disrespect. The principal and deputies get the email each week so any complaints about not getting it isn't going to look too good as they might not know who I send it to but I do

But I just teachers unskilled in their subject (because the late notice = no relief available) or handing out internal relief slips in the morning to their colleagues to cover their classes which due to a new email system I have setup they know it happened last minute and teachers don't appreciate loosing their dot time because someone was lazy.

But alas one teacher was overheard today not understanding how to copy and paste a piece of text from the internet to word. And another asked me why I had organised a relief teacher for him tomorrow um because you have a Professional Development day booked and then he found out it was actually today he should have been there. *sigh*