Workplace Email Tips: How to Politely Respond to Meeting Invitations and Absence Notices

When you receive an email informing you about a meeting that you should attend, most of the time you don't need to do much, except if you're using meeting scheduling software, you would accept the meeting request. However, sometimes you might want to respond by asking a question. There are some situations when you might need to send an email to the person organising the meeting. If there was no agenda sent, you might want to ask about that. Imagine you're writing back to a colleague, which of these would you probably not choose? "Where's the agenda" is very direct and could sound rude if you don't know the person very well. The other two are good. Let's see how we can use them.

Hi, Karen. Thanks for the email. Do we have an agenda? If the writer forgot to attach the agenda, you could write something like this: Hi, Karen. I think you forgot to attach the agenda. Sometimes the meeting email will ask if anyone wants to add anything to the agenda. So if you want to talk about something that is not on the agenda, send a quick email. Can you share our examples of how to do it? Hi, Karen. I'd like to add some time to talk about the new store. We probably need about 15 minutes. Hi, Karen. Can we have some time to talk about next week's training? 10 minutes is enough. And this example is a little more formal:

Hi, Karen. I would like to add an item to the agenda. I think we need to discuss next month's advertising campaign. I'm not sure how long we need, but I think it's important. Finally, this example is a little more indirect: Hi, Karen. Would we have enough time to talk about last month's sales report? You will see these three emails. Which do you think is the best one? Did you choose email C? This email is the best because it's not too direct and also lets the organizer know how much time is needed. If you would like to learn more about or review how to be formal or informal, and direct or indirect, see our lesson on email in our first course on networking. So now you've seen how to ask a quick question about the agenda.

Let's focus on how to send an email telling the organizer that you can't come. By the way, we're not going to encourage you to avoid meetings that you might not want to attend. We're going to focus on situations where you are unable to attend. Of course, you could use the same guidelines and language, but again, we don't want to encourage that. So let's look step by step at writing an email where you can say that you cannot attend. After the greeting, you'll first need to write that you cannot attend the meeting. Here are some examples of what to write in the first line: Hi, Karen. I wanted to let you know that I can't come to next week's meeting. Here is an example that is a little more informal: Hi, Karen. Just to let you know that I can't make it to next week's meeting. And here is an example that is a little more formal: Dear Lauren, I'm writing to inform you that I am unable to attend next week's meeting.

Remember, you might want to soften your message to make it sound less direct. In this case, you can use words like "I'm afraid", "I'm sorry about", or "unfortunately". Let's see how we can add these phrases to our first sentence: Hi, Karen. I wanted to let you know that I'm afraid I can't come to next week's meeting. Hi, Karen. Just to let you know that I'm sorry, but I can't make it to next week's meeting. Dear Lauren, I'm writing to inform you that, unfortunately, I'm unable to attend next week's meeting. When you say that you can't do something, you usually have to give a reason.

So let's look at some different reasons we might have. Let's look at some reasons when it is impossible for you to attend: I'm going to be out of the office on Monday. I'm on vacation all next week. I have a previously scheduled appointment on that day. This is more formal language. Sometimes there are other reasons why you can't attend. Maybe you're just too busy. However, it's not a good idea to just write "I'm busy". You should give more details about what you are doing: I have to finish the sales report by Tuesday. I have the deadline for the website redesign coming up. The reorganization of the North Lake store is currently taking up a lot of my time.

Read these three emails. Which do you think is the best one? Email B is the best one because it gives a specific reason. Although email C gives a specific reason, it doesn't give the important information that the writer cannot attend the meeting in the first sentence. When you are busy, you should really give details, but sometimes we don't have to be clear. It's acceptable to give vague reasons when something unexpected happens or there are personal reasons: "Something has just come up" means that something unexpected has happened. "Due to a family commitment" means that you have to go to something like a wedding, family celebration, or attend a meeting at your child's school. "Due to a personal matter" is very vague because it's personal, meaning private. You're not going to say exactly what the reason is and others are not going to ask either. However, when you use this phrase, it means that it's probably something important, not that you just don't feel like coming to work. Another expression is "due to a family emergency".

After giving your reason, you might also want to add another sentence apologizing for not being able to attend the meeting. Of course, this depends on your relationship with the reader. If you're writing to your boss, you probably would want to be clear and give an apology: "Sorry to let you know on such short notice". "On short notice" means that you are letting the reader know that you cannot come a short time before the actual meeting. "My apologies" or "I'm sorry for any inconvenience" is a little more formal. But you'll want to end by adding a closing sentence so that it doesn't sound too abrupt or sudden. Here are some examples: "Please let me know what was decided." "Anyway, I look forward to hearing what was discussed." "I look forward to reading the minutes."

Read the following three emails and decide which is the best one to inform someone of not being able to attend a meeting. Did you choose A? That's the best one. Email B has too much information that wasn't necessary and email C was too abrupt. So that's how to write a response saying that you can't attend a meeting. There's one more thing we'll look at though. What about if you really want to or need to attend? Well, you could ask that the meeting time be changed. Again, you would probably ask a colleague this question, not usually your boss. As this is a special request, you'll want to make the language indirect. Let's see some examples. Notice how the request is a yes-no question: "Could it be possible to move it to Tuesday?" "Is there any chance we could push it back to the following week?" "Push back" means to postpone something. "Could we maybe reschedule it for later in the week?" So to review, we've covered how to write an email asking a question about the agenda and saying you can't attend. We've seen how to give a reason and how to end with a closing sentence.