Email Free Fridays
from the walk-and-talk dept
Two years ago we had the story of the Liverpool City Council who banned all internal email on Wednesdays. Last year, it was UK company Phones4U that banned all internal email. Apparently, this sort of "trend" picks up one organization a year. The latest is Veritas Software, where the marketing department has declared Friday an email free day. The VP of marketing felt that email was getting out of control, so banning it outright (on Fridays, at least) seemed like a way to force people to figure out other ways to communicate, and to cut out some of the worst abuses of email. To make the ban stick, he even promised to fine those who abuse it $1 (and to give that money to charity). Some people can't help themselves, but others have adjusted. The fine "pool" is apparently up to $70, but it's growth rate has slowed (and that $70 includes $20 from a woman who "forgot" about the ban, and sent out 65 messages before she realized her mistake -- but instead of paying $65, the VP commuted her sentence to $20). What's unclear, though, is whether or not there's any real benefit to doing this. It's clear that email can become overwhelming at times. However it is a useful tool. Banning it outright, rather than encouraging good email practices seems a bit extreme. However, perhaps this "email free day" helps to force people to think about communications practices, and may actually lead to better email management on the other days of the week.
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IM
the marketing department has declared Friday an email free day.
Would SMS be considered email ? How about instant messenger ? I guess blogs would be a deperate last-ditch effort.
The obvious workaround for this rather capricious decree is to CC' an external account or better yet address it to the external account and CC' the person you actually want it to go to.
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WTF?
In my office, we use email for everything from meeting requests to file transfers. I suppose it could get overwhelming if people were basically spamming their co-workers, but it makes more sense to ban that practice rather than the whole technology.
See also: baby vs bathwater
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Re: WTF?
untrue with Jabber-based IM
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No Subject Given
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Shaking head in amusement
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Re: Shaking head in amusement
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and others way to misuse e-mail
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How about
The real problem is that people use Email for everything. In particular, they use it as a group medium as well as a person-to-person medium and don't make any distinction between them. So, when someone needs to announce the charity bake sale, they typically just email the announcement to everyone and you end up with a situation where everyone is drowning in irrelevant email.
(The article mentions one woman who sent 65 emails in a day! Who sends that many relevent messages?!)
The Right Thing would be for them to use something else in addition to email--an internal Slashdot-style website, say, or a newsgroup or Wiki--to publish the stuff intended for wider distribution. We know how to make those sorts of things present lots of information in a comprehensible way. Then, they could reserve email for one-to-one communication.
Of course, that's going to be an uphill battle. Most people seem to learn one tool and then use it for everything--I've seen all sorts of horrors perpetrated as Excel spreadsheets--so my suspicion is that most non-techies aren't going to be bothered to learn a new thing without lots of encouragement.
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i agree
although i am a huge proponent of email and use is constantly, i see the perils.
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Missing the Point
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Phone's ringing and ringing? Silence! :))
So before the higher ups ban a whole corporation please consider the need to focus in peace and quiet for certain groups, and also keep in mind the importance of a quiet environment for some and that it takes 20 minutes to attain a high level of concentration. Once that is broken, one has to start all over.
I noticed that these things are often forced rather than encouraged and I do not agree with forcing people to communicate outside of their comfort natural zone. Can you tell I am not a phone person: *laugh*
My two sense :))
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