There’s nothing worse than sending an email to someone or leaving them a phone message and getting no response. It can be very frustrating. I realize that people are busy and I may not be their first priority but is it so hard to send someone a one line response or call them back? Does it really take that much time and effort?

I recently emailed three Generation Y websites to ask them to review my new career advice book. The book has garnered many positive reviews but most of them are from Gen X’ers and Baby Boomers and I wanted to get feedback from my target audience, Generation Y. The first website did respond initially and said they would read the book and would let me know if and when they’d review it. Several months have gone by and I haven’t heard anything. If they didn’t have time to read it or didn’t like it, that’s fine, but just let me know either way, that’s all. The second website is run by a few contributors so I sent my email a few weeks ago to their main email address. No response. I then followed up and sent an email specifically to one of their contributors. No response. The third website was Brazen Careerist. I emailed Ryan Paugh and as I anticipated, he was just too busy to review my book. However, as usual, he responded to me almost immediately and had kind words to say, which reinforced my positive opinion of him. What people may not realize is that other people may base their perceptions of them on simple things like how quickly they respond to an email, if at all. Oh by the way, I’m in the middle of a college lecture tour. Guess which Generation Y website I recommend to college students?

In order for me to lecture at universities, I usually call someone in their Career Center first. If I call a couple of times and they don’t answer, I’ll leave a message, although I usually don’t like leaving a message for someone who doesn’t know me. Other times I’ll send them an email. If I do speak with them on the phone, I’ll usually follow up with an email, too. I tell them I would like to speak to their students and give them career advice which is based on my book. I do not charge anything for the lecture but I do ask that they purchase a small quantity of books which can be raffled off to the students who attend. I’ve been fortunate that a lot of universities and colleges have taken me up on the offer but there are some who don’t respond at all.

What about the other colleges? If I worked in a Career Center and someone with corporate experience offered to speak to my students about something that could help them in their careers, I think I would at least send them an email saying, “Thank you for your offer but we are unable to accommodate you at this time.” How much time and effort would that take? One woman at a Career Center told me that they were just getting the Career Center up and running and if I were still lecturing in a few years, I should get in touch with her. Did she say a few years? You’ve got to be kidding me. Maybe it is better to get no response in some cases!

My philosophy has always been to return phone calls and emails same day if possible or at the latest, by the next day. This is true at work as well as at home. If I expect people to get back to me promptly then I must do the same for them. I knew one employee who was laid off after working 15 years for one company and when I asked people why he was let go, their response was, “he didn’t return phone calls or emails.” As it turned out, this wasn’t the main reason why he was let go but it shows how important it is to return phone calls and emails promptly or your reputation could suffer.

Are you finding that more and more, some people just don’t get back to you? How do you feel about that? Are you guilty of doing the same thing?

Andy Teach is the author of the new career advice book, From Graduation To Corporation: The Practical Guide to Climbing the Corporate Ladder One Rung at a Time.