You don’t need to apologize for taking hours, days, or years to reply to one of my emails.
If we are not close collaborators, and if I didn’t explicitly tell you I was waiting for your answer within a specific timeframe, then please stop apologizing for replying late!
This is a trend I’m witnessing, probably caused by the addiction to instant messaging. Most of the emails I receive these days contain some sort of apology. I received an apology from someone who took five hours to reply to what was a cold and unimportant email. I received apologies in what was a reply to a reply I had sent only a couple of days earlier.
Apologizing for taking time to reply to my email is awkward and makes me uncomfortable.
It also puts a lot of pressure on me: what if I take more time than you to reply? Isn’t the whole point of asynchronous communication to be… asynchronous? Each on its own rhythm?
https://ploum.net/2026-02-11-do_not_apologize_for_replying_to_my_email.html
another interesting take from Hacker News
