You Want Emails? You’re Getting ALL THE EMAILS!

About a month ago, I moved to a new state and got a new job managing an office in the medical field.

Every morning, one of my responsibilities is emailing a list of patients by the type of appointment they had and the details of their appointment (called an encounter) to Records from the day prior. I separate documents by type of appointment and attach the files to a single email with the date. Having worked in records before, sorting by date and having sub-categories for type is easiest for me, and this is the way the new place trained me to do it.

After about two weeks of doing it the way I was told and the way I think is easiest, I get a very abrupt, passive-aggressive email in response.

Records Person: “Send encounters each in individual emails. Thanks, [Records Person].”

I try to reach out for clarification. Do they want an entire list of one appointment type in an individual email? How the heck do you want it done? Just tell me. There is no answer to my question, so I just continue to send it how I was taught.

Another week goes by, and I get another passive-aggressive email.

Records Person: “Per my last email, send encounters each in individual emails.”

No “please”, “thank you”, or response to my questions at all.

So, I maliciously comply. It takes about two extra hours of my time, but I do as she has asked and painstakingly send each encounter in a separate email — one single encounter per email. That equals about sixty emails back to back to back instead of one nicely laid-out email sorted by type.

After two days of this, I get an email.

Records Person: “Please stop. You are cluttering my email. You may send me one email with the encounter types attached. Thanks, [Records Person]. “

Yeah, I thought so. I continued to send the emails how I was trained, and I haven’t had a problem since.

I found out today that [Records Person] was also new, and she got to learn that part of the job the hard way, unfortunately. I feel a little bit bad for messing with her like that, but in the end, I think she may have learned that a little bit of email etiquette can go a long way.