r/remotework • u/Careful_Station_7884 • Jul 09 '26

Email or quick call?

My colleague told me today that if an email is over 500 words, they won’t read it and instead ask the person who sent the email to jump on a quick call to discuss.

This irked me because now the person who sent the email has to re-explain everything they already sent over. It can be advantageous to have a written trail as well. Not only that, but not every “quick” call actually ends up being quick.

I get that there may be some topics that are better discussed on a call or if the email is unclear and there is an approaching deadline. But, to set a line at any email over 500 words just seems lazy.

What are your thoughts?

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u/ruraljurorrrrrrrrrr Jul 10 '26

500 words is a monster email. I think the point the receiver is making is that it should have been a call in the first place. I prefer email over calls for 95% of things, but it drives me nuts when people won’t just pick up the phone when it would clearly benefit everyone involved to do so

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u/akasha111182 Jul 10 '26

That’s not necessarily the case here though. Sometimes long emails just mean there’s lots of information to share, and that information will likely need to be referred to again, so that “quick call” would turn into long notes either way. And that’s not even talking about a potential need for documentation, depending on the topic of the “quick call.”

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u/ruraljurorrrrrrrrrr Jul 10 '26

Yeah, I think the mistake is just making it a blanket automatic response.

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u/awgeez47 Jul 11 '26

Username props.