Emails at work

[Egbert]

We have been told that email is a great tool at work allowing instant communications so we can all be in easy contact, instantly updated and blah blah blah.

OTH Email also allows us to cc the whole company with every piece of trivia. (Inbox filled with rubbish from and useless announcements from colleagues and other departments).

It allows us to demand instant responses thus allowing the urgent to push aside the important (Ever had important work to do but keep getting trivial emails from the boss with his knickers in a knot about this that and the other?).

It allows us to interrupt anyone at any time on any subject no matter how irrelevant. (What, you haven't even read my email, I sent it 3 minutes ago?)

Would we be better off just swithching the email off? We could actually talk to one another.

I think email is way overused and actually cuts into efficiency and effectiveness in many workplaces. OTH It is very useful for attaching files and conveying information that does need to be in writing.

Your thoughts?

[Aeson]

It sounds exactly like poly... (other than the "useful" part near the end)

[Kidlicious]

I think that working with other people cuts down our efficiency.

[dannubis]

We have been told that email is a great tool at work allowing instant communications so we can all be in easy contact, instantly updated and blah blah blah.

OTH Email also allows us to cc the whole company with every piece of trivia. (Inbox filled with rubbish from and useless announcements from colleagues and other departments).

It allows us to demand instant responses thus allowing the urgent to push aside the important (Ever had important work to do but keep getting trivial emails from the boss with his knickers in a knot about this that and the other?).

It allows us to interrupt anyone at any time on any subject no matter how irrelevant. (What, you haven't even read my email, I sent it 3 minutes ago?)

Would we be better off just swithching the email off? We could actually talk to one another.

I think email is way overused and actually cuts into efficiency and effectiveness in many workplaces. OTH It is very useful for attaching files and conveying information that does need to be in writing.

Your thoughts?

First hour of the day: email on.

First hour after lunch: email on.

At around 6 and 9 PM: email on.

During all other periods, if it is that urgent, call me.

[loinburger]

I get an automated email whenever any of the servers does anything (successfully imported an order? Send an email to the entire IT department), which averages around 1200 emails per day. Fortunately, they're all from the same address, so I just have any email from that address automatically sent to the trash.

[PLATO]

Besides the instantaneous nature of email communication, its greatest benefit to an organization is creating a record of communication between employees. It should be the company's responsibility to establish an effective email policy and enforce it. If this is done right, then the spam should be at a minimum. Important things should be emailed AND followed up with a phone call...both to ensure reciept of the email and to provide clarification if needed.

[Spaced Cowboy]

Email works in a lot of situations where voice and person to person does not.

1. My company is global and there are a lot of person that I deal with that are not native English speakers, so detailed emails are often better as I don't have to dumb it down so much as when I am speaking with them (they can use translators and learn more English). That and the fact that they are 12 hours out in China so they are working when we are sleeping makes emails very valuable.

2. I generally like to track people down and get face time as it is faster to convey information in that manner. However, some folks are just plain hard to find, emails tends to work better on these people.

3. For the record...emails, you can get anyone saying they never said that.

4. Seems like the younger team members would rather text/email than talk, I prefer talking.

5. I have a smart phone, emails can be monitored without being tied to my PC. That makes emails for me pretty much instantaneous.

[Dauphin]

Employers who want to sack staff with cause will often just revew their e-mail accounts. The amount of self-incriminating and sackable offence stuff people put in their e-mails is astounding.

[onodera]

Employers who want to sack staff with cause will often just revew their e-mail accounts. The amount of self-incriminating and sackable offence stuff people put in their e-mails is astounding.

Is this even legal?

[Dauphin]

In the UK it is legal (I think) if an employee is notified that the company monitors e-mails prior to the date monitoring commences (or if retroactively reviewed, the earliest date of material reviewed). Most employee policy handbooks have it clearly stated that they reserve the right to monitor e-mail communications passing through the company's servers. I don't believe that employees have to give consent, they just need to be notified.

[PLATO]

Is this even legal?

Yep...The company owns the company email account. Usually, there will be a policy in place that details the "internet usage policy" and it will include email policy.

[KrazyHorse]

Is this even legal?

Why wouldn't it be legal to monitor emails sent to and from your employees on company accounts?

[KrazyHorse]

I'm pretty sure our phone calls on company phones are also recorded and retained for 6 months pursuant to some regulation or another.

[Egbert]

Why wouldn't it be legal to monitor emails sent to and from your employees on company accounts?

Monitoring email can fall foul of privacy laws in some jurisdictions. It also depends upon the extent and nature of the monitoring. A porn filter is OK, sitting at an employees desk "snooping" at his emails is not a good idea.

[Hauldren Collider]

Is this even legal?

Seems sketchy to me. I think most employers here have a policy of not looking through your emails without something like a court order, but I'm not sure...

I mean, the company probably owns the account. So legal, yes, but do companies really look through your email?