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When someone sends you a invite in Outlook, you have 3 options: Accept , Tentative and Decline, but under Accept you have three more options:

  1. Edit the response before sending
  2. Send the response now
  3. Do not send a response

These meeting invitations mainly come from managers or upper management. Which Accept option should I choose? IMO every time I accept with Send a response now this might bother someone.

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    By sending a response, you simple confirm the appointment. You are not bothering the person. All of these seems to be valid options, depending on the situation. I use them all. When it is a new appointment I usually send repond. When a date of an appointment is being changed I usually do not send a response, unless I decline. This is just my opinion and how I do it. So not really suitable as an answer.
    – Jeroen
    Jan 18, 2017 at 11:01
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    I would use "2" most of the time. If I were to want to say something, I would use "1." I probably would not use "3" just because I feel like it's always polite to RSVP. Think of it this way: you may feel like you're bothering the person, but you're saving the person the trouble of having to follow up with you, which to me, is more bothersome, especially in an employee from whom I would expect initiative.
    – Teacher KSHuang
    Jan 18, 2017 at 11:04

1 Answer 1

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When you accept, people rarely read any response text that's included. In other words, time spent on option 1, "Edit the response before sending", would be better spent elsewhere.

When you select option 2, the meeting organizer just gets a default, generic "Nofel is attending" message. If any at all. Many people filter those messages or set up Outlook to not show them to them.

In both cases, the organizer will see your status for the meeting (attending, possibly attending, not attending) if they look at the meeting details; I'm not sure if they will if you select option 3.

If you're declining, it may be reasonable to include a polite message as to why; usually I'll respond if I already have time out of the office scheduled.

If you're selecting the "Tentative" option, it is reasonable to ask for more detail about the meeting, how critical your attendance is for it, etc. Just because you received a meeting invite does not obligate you to attend - in some offices, if you accepted every meeting invite you'd never be at your desk!

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  • Last time i decline/Tentative with a valid reason that i am very busy with deadline got me fired. So i don't know what goes into head of management.
    – user15704
    Jan 18, 2017 at 14:13
  • @Nofel it may have been how you worded it. The other thing you can do there is pre-emptively block out time on your calendar to dedicate time to your deadline project(s) to lessen the chances of receiving an invite
    – alroc
    Jan 18, 2017 at 15:34
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    @Nofel You got fired for declining a meeting request? That's either a bad company or you are missing out other story elements...
    – Draken
    Jan 18, 2017 at 15:42
  • @Draken sure there were a bit other issues but as i work with other companies after that i can certainly see what kind of PM was he and how a PM really should be.
    – user15704
    Jan 18, 2017 at 15:57
  • You seem to be using Outlook with an Exchange server. AFAIK, if you do not send a response, they would indeed view the status in the meeting, without needing an explicit email about that, as long as both of you are in the same company. Outlook would automatically update your status on the meeting (hosted on the same server as your mail). This won't work for invitations sent by external users, and Ourlook shouldn't be offering opiton 3 in those cases imho.
    – Ángel
    Jun 27, 2020 at 0:14

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