If you work in an office that you don't own, please consider this post.

[Bertha Venation]

It's about email.

I sent this query to IT today:

"I had a phone call from someone outside the firm this morning because I had not responded to email she sent today. . . . Furthermore, (someone) has commented to me a number of times about the irritating frequency with which outside email is held up for hours or days.

"Has anyone else commented on this today?

"May I know if IT is addressing this ongoing problem?"

Outside mail not getting through -- this happens at least twice a week!

Furthermore, despite two people working on it full time, spam is completely out of control.

The official spill about the email "delay": there was an "incident" last night; it has been resolved and now the servers are just dealing with getting out the backlog as well as an apparently amazing volume of email coming in today.

Not only that, but when I asked why this happens so often, the tech person said "this is the only one I've ever heard about." I told her it happens twice, sometimes three times a week, and she said "I haven't heard about those, this is the only one I've heard of."

Is this normal? "Incidents," "backlog," "massive volume causing problems?" I have often been told when reporting this that email being held up for various reasons is "normal" and "to be expected w/ the volume we get." I say BULLSHIT, but what do I know?

And is it normal for spam to be out of control when people are working on it full time?

[tsakshaug]

1. depends

One of the more frustrating parts of working in IT, is that sometimes we are not told about problems, then people tell us it happens "all the time" if we don't know, we cannot do much about it.
but the backlog, massive volume, and the like, sounds like they need a new server or program or increase the bandwidth or something if this is a common problem.

Spam is another story. Sometimes it is diffuclt to track and block, with some of the spam spoofing addresses. I am in the process of fighting an attack today.

[trotsky]

2. This is one of the tasks I do.

Yes, spam is out of control. I could easily devote one full-time person to it, if I wanted to get 100% effective and non-delayed e-mail for our company of 50 people.

Most filters sort mail into:

* Clearly crap
* Clearly good
* I'm not sure

So you have three choices for the "I'm not sure":
1) Pass it all, even though most is spam. Then people complain about spam.
2) Delete it all, even the couple of legitimate messages. Then they complain about losing valuable info (which is a legit gripe!)
3) Have it collected for review by a person who can make the final determination. If you are short-handed, it can take some time to review it all and you may have delays.

Spam sucks. Especially from this IT person's point-of-view.

On edit: My anti-spam gateway processes about 30,000 messages per day for our company of 50 employees, to give you an idea of the volumes involved.

[Not_Giving_Up]

3. I had this problem at a previous job...

It would sometimes take hours for e-mails to get through...no good explanation was ever given.

[mike_c]

4. regarding spam....

I delete 50-60 spams a day, every day. Spam outnumbers my normal email by a huge margin. The university spam filter marks about half of the obvious spam, but our IT folks deliver it anyway because the filter occassionally misidentifies legitimate mail. The worst problem is that I often delete genuine email from students, who frequently put things in the subject line like "Hi" or "our meeting," which is indistinguishable from much of the spam that I get. Sadly, students never have their emails confused with spam headed by subjects like "Want to see my 38DD...," well, you get the idea.

It's really become a problem, to the extent that I've told my students that email is no longer a reliable communications medium. Luckily, we have other closed messenging options, like the BlackBoard system, but many folks still reach for email as the default way to contact me.

[tsakshaug]

5. other spam

I also have to deal with people complaining about spam they signed up for, that is ads from legit companies (dicks sporting goods was one i just deat with) If you sign up for mailings from these folks do it to your home address. I had to help someone take themselves off this email list a few moments ago, right after my first reply.
-then I get the "oh-I never signed up for that"

ID-ten-T error

[trotsky]

6. Yup, that is a problem too.

A person here complained that they weren't getting their weekly Sears ad via e-mail. It is very hard to explain to some people that their business e-mail account is meant for that: business. I have no obligation to make sure your *personal* mail gets through to you, only that which is related to the business of the company.

I try really hard, but when it comes down to brass tacks, I'm going to accept a few legit personal e-mails (this includes joke e-mails, attachments, etc.) getting blocked as "to be expected." And of course my boss will back me 100%.

[Bertha Venation]

7. Thanks, everyone.

I appreciate your replies.