Working today is tough — more so in a big company.

The simplest of jobs requires you to interact with 2 or more departments, often with their own views and priorities.

At times, it seems everyone needs a push before they give what you want.

How do you push?

How do you escalate — without it leading to antagonism between departments or worse, bosses getting involved?

For start, you need to segregate issues into two categories when it comes to escalation:

1. One-off issues
2. Issues that are systemic in nature.

Each will require a different approach.

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1. One-off issues

“One-off” issues that require escalation could pertain to a single transaction, a one-off delay, an instance of non-revert, etc.

These can often be resolved with an effective Subject line.

In short, convey how the issue is affecting your work. The subject structure has to thus become:

Category — Issue — Reason for Escalation

Some Examples:

IRDA Staff — Not in 5 branches — will come in Audit Report

System ‘Call-Bank’ — 12 Open Items — 7 Impacting work

Sundry Ac 45836 — Rs 5.6 Crores unreconciled — Risk unknown

‘Form 16’ — Rs 2.75 lakh diff — Deadline for Tax Return 31 July

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Subjects like these don’t leave room for discussion.

They force people to give priority.

They force bosses to pay attention, to intervene if required, and in all probability to track for closure.

In a day, you will face tens of issues.

Stop running — getting into long calls and meetings.

Instead, consider your chair, your PC, and your email as a pilot’s cockpit.

Manage issues and risks with an effective email subject line.

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2. Systemic Issues

A Systemic issue is one where you can’t attribute the problem to a single individual.

You get an inkling of this from a couple of prior interactions with the counterpart.

In such cases, you will have to also focus on the real reason — the process, the system, etc., for long-term resolution.

And to get your job done, you will have to proactively reach-in.

That means an Escalation Email which has the following 4 ingredients:

1. A Strong Subject
2. Is High on Facts,
3. Is Low on Emotion (non-destructive), and
4. Has some Suggestions to solve the Issue.

An Example

Imagine you are the Head of Administration department in a company.

You notice a delay in the receipt of vendor payments (say, demand drafts or DDs) from the Accounts team. You decide to escalate the issue.

(It is a systemic issue because it is not a one-off bills delay, but one that is seen in bills stretching over weeks.)

Your Email’s 4 ingredients will be:

1. A Strong Subject

Whether you are escalating over on an existing email trail or initiating a separate email, use a subject like:

’24 Bills Pending — Over 25 Days Old — Business Suffering’.

A subject like this indicates a systemic breakdown and will attract everyone’s attention.

It signals a pattern, not an isolated lapse.

2. High on Facts

You list the 24 bills for which the DDs are to be received.

When you show all cases together, the scale of the issue becomes undeniable. It makes it easy for bosses to intervene.

Contrary to this, typical escalation emails, initiated under hurry and stress, tend to highlight a couple of cases, and end with “Please urgently release all the DDs pertaining to the Admin team”.

This leads to ambiguity later on which bills are pending, resulting in recurring escalations.

True, this means you will have to put some effort — list all the bills pending as per your records. But that is a small price to pay, to get your issue resolved in 1-go.

3. Low on Emotion

Instead of being destructive / judgmental in your email (“What is the issue?”, “Once we send the bills, it becomes your responsibility to issue the DD within 5 days …”),

You dispassionately highlight the effects of delay (“We find that we are not receiving the DDs in time. … Due to delay in payment, vendors are delaying delivery of new equipment and services, which in turn is affecting other units in the company.”)

This keeps the email from turning into a blame game.

4. Suggest a Solution

In your Escalation email, you suggest some solution too (short term and long term):

a) You offer to rescan the 24 bills, to help the Accounts team to issue the DDs on priority — saving them from having to search all through their records.

b) As a long-term solution, you request the Accounts team to evaluate publishing an MIS (management information system) every Friday, listing the Admin bills pending, and the reason for the delay.

When you offer suggestions, you position yourself as someone who has thought through the issue and seeks a long-term resolution — not someone who merely reports problems.

You may not always have a perfect solution — but sharing a workable one will still add value.

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A Caution Note:

You have a duty to get the work done.

If you don’t, you will face the consequences of not escalating issues on time.

At the same time, you and your department will benefit from maintaining good working relationships with others.

Approach escalation with a mindset of solving the issue, not of ‘winning’ / ‘showing others’.

Used aggressively — especially if you’re later found to be at fault — it will invite equal or greater pushback.

A good rule of thumb:

Escalate via email — only after a call or standard follow-up hasn’t worked within a reasonable timeframe.

This ensures you’ve given the person a fair chance and are not over-escalating minor issues.

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On CC

Escalation often involves marking to higher-ups.

But if you are a junior, relatively new, or feel the need to preserve the relationship — one smart thing you can do is to just mark to your counterpart, with a cc to your boss.

Don’t mark the counterpart’s boss.

Leave it to your boss — who, based on the subject of your email — might decide if it needs to be also informed to his counterpart, i.e., your counterpart’s boss.

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A good escalation makes it easy for others to prioritize and act on your issue.