<p>I wonder how this is different when someone is a manager to 200+ people. Would the manager expect the staff to email him/her with non-consequential questions? I didn’t find that to be the case. I also found email communication allowed me to think before I gave an answer. Now, there is a maturity difference between 20 something vs 30 or 40 something, so employees maybe better at making judgmental on when to email their senior manager. But when/how to communicate with a person in authority is a learning process, I think while in college is a good time to learn, which means instead of telling students “no” about email, the professor could help to guide the students.</p>
<p>Over the years we’ve heard from students on CC that they have some difficult issues in class, they wanted to know how to communicate with their professor. A lot of us have said to write the professor or dean an email first then follow up with a meeting. The reason is one can often explain things better when writing it in email, and it also gives the reader a chance to think it through carefully before replying.</p>
<p>I know both of my kids have communicated with their professors via email, and almost all of their professors have responded promptly. Their Uni has 12K+ students.</p>