Answer the most junior person first
Inboxes are triaged by seniority without anyone deciding to. Reversing it once a day costs you nothing.
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The BeingKind editorsPublished How this is written
Why it lands
Everyone answers the important sender first, which means the most junior person's question waits longest — despite being the one most likely to be blocked by it and least able to chase. They also read the delay as a statement about their standing. Flipping the order is invisible to the senior person, who will not notice waiting twenty minutes, and extremely visible to the junior one.
How
When you sit down to your messages, go bottom-up by seniority rather than top-down. If you cannot answer properly, send the holding reply — “seen this, need an hour” — which is what actually unblocks someone psychologically.
Answer if you want. It changes which ideas are shown first.
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