Trackline
I'm not the one who handles this
Say so, and say who does. Forwarding without telling anyone leaves the request in your name — and the reminders too.
**Reply with one line saying who does handle it.** That is all it takes, and it is what stops the request sitting in your name generating reminders for you for weeks.
The three ways out, best to worst
| What you do | What happens next |
|---|---|
| You say who handles it | It gets redirected and the alerts stop |
| You forward it silently | It stays in your name. Reminders keep coming |
| You do nothing | It piles up and eventually escalates above you |
Important
**Forwarding it to a colleague does not take the request off your desk.** It is the option everyone picks because it looks polite and quick, and it is precisely the one that leaves the matter in no-man's-land: you think it is handled, your colleague thinks it was addressed to you, and the requester still sees your name. One line back —«Jane handles this, write to her»— closes all three ends at once.
If you do not know who handles it either
Watch out
The commonest case in small companies: **the request lands at the company's general address because it is the only one on the website**. Nobody is at fault there, it is just a catch-all mailbox. It is worth replying once with the right person and address, because that gets saved and future requests stop passing through — the difference between solving it once and solving it monthly.
›Can I just forward it?
Better to also tell the requester, or it stays in your name.
›What if the right person is on leave?
Say so with a rough return date: that is what lets people re-plan.
›Will I keep getting alerts?
Until the request is redirected, yes. Hence the line back.
A real case
The situation
You receive a request that belongs to another department and forward it saying nothing.
What you do
- Replies with one line naming who handles it and at which address
What you get
The request is redirected and the reminders stop coming to you.
The situation
Every request lands in the company's general mailbox.
What you do
- Replies once with the right person and address for this kind of paperwork
What you get
Future ones arrive directly and the catch-all stops being a bottleneck.
The situation
It is forwarded to a colleague without telling anyone.
What you do
- Replies saying who handles it
What you get
Reminders stop reaching someone who can do nothing.
The situation
The colleague does not handle it either and forwards it on.
What you do
- Finds out who does before forwarding
What you get
The request reaches its destination in one hop.
The situation
The request stays in the name of whoever received it.
What you do
- Asks for the contact to be changed in the file
What you get
Follow-up points at the right person.
The situation
Nobody replies and the client assumes disinterest.
What you do
- Replies, even if only to redirect
What you get
The relationship does not suffer from silence.
This article answers
- i got a request that isnt mine
- a colleague handles this
- can i forward the request to someone else
- im not responsible for this paperwork