Should Emails Be Abolished in the Workplace? ATOS Thinks So

The debate goes on, should emails be banned in the workplace – fueled recently by the CEO of Atos, Thierry Breton, who believes that emails in his organisation can be phased out in a year.

Some of the reasons for this are that he believes that emails not only waste time, but that email also stops people from communicating in more meaningful ways, notably face-to-face or on the telephone. He also believes that it is not fair that employees spend time reading and replying to mails outside of work-time, at weekend and in the evening.

He also feels that using the more ‘instantaneous’ communication of social media is more beneficial than mails – which is refreshing coming from a French CEO, who generally condemn social media as a time waster in the organisation.

Mr Breton, surely has some valid points, but is ignoring a lot of the main points regarding email, and especially some of the strong points of well-used and timely mails.

Basically, the medium is not the problem, it is more a case of how it is used, and most of us use it badly. One big organisation in Europe decided to have an email-free day, once a week, which was a disaster as the day following the email-free day was spent reading and responding to the mails received the day before.

I have been training people in email usage for a number of years, and this is what we usually battle against.

Email is a great medium, which provides an effective communication medium, documents and other media can be sent easily, cheaply and quickly – but this, in our fast-food culture is nearly always the root of the problem. Email can be sent across time-zones, enable traceability and proof of reception – it is truly great! However, the nature of the medium is that it is often abused and at this point becomes very expensive as time is taken to reply, read and react to irrelevant mails and spam, networks have to be constantly upgraded to manage the ever increasing traffic and attention spans are being reduced by the effects of email.

Some of the problems of mail are :

1. It is easy, quick and cheap to send – so we send more and more – email volume doubles every two years according to Gartner.
2. People are constantly interrupted by the arrival of mails in their in-box, attention spans are decreased due to this.
3. Time is wasted, simply glancing at a mail means that we lose about 3 minutes of concentration to get back to the tack in hand – so 10 emails in a day means 30 minutes wasted – very few of us receive just 10 emails a day …
4. Email is legal, so can be used in litigation – a 3 line email can change a contract with a supplier easily!
5. The “reply to all” button is a plague that distributes mails to the world and his wife, wasting the time, aggravating and annoying all concerned … and stealing their time too.
6. Written communication is ambiguous and fraught with minefields – writing irony just does not work (se our post on written communication) but many still try to do it.
7. Email is at times riddled with perceived aggression – which in turn is met with aggression.
8. Mails can be used as a fulcrum to drive people (negatively) to action – putting the boss on copy to get a task done works, but leaves a bitter taste in the mouth of the receiver of the mail.
9. Long mails are counter productive – scrolling down a screen to read a message does not help the concentration, so many will print mails, which are then discarded, wasting printer tone, electricity, paper and time.
10. People send messages in mails that they would never say in a face-to-face situation. Put simply, if you wouldn’t print your email on company paper, sign it at the bottom and send it – DO NOT send it as a mail.
11. Email is not a one-to-one private communication medium – once you press send, it’s out of your hands but can be forwarded, copied or printed and given to the world and his wife.
12. Email is not cheap – it looks free, but it isn’t, there are whole load of software and hardware that is needed to send mail – somebody pays for it, it’s not free.
13. Ambiguous subject lines for mails do not work – think about the subject line
14. Sending a mail with no subject line should never happen
15. Never give bad news by email
16. Give clear ‘actions’ with mails – FYI, action etc. make it clear for the reader
17. Always start and end a mail politely – hello and thank you cost little but have inestimable value in communication.
18. Be clear of the differences between a mail, a business letter and a memo – get the register right, not a hybrid of the three.
19. Remember that email reflects the credibility of you, your department and your company – keep this in mind when sending.
20. Setting a mail out with white-space makes it more pleasant for the brain to read and often ensures it will be read, whereas a block of crammed-in text may not even be read.

These are just some of the problems of email, which can easily, in the very near future, be applied to social media – it’s not the medium but the way it is used. rarely, if ever, have I met anybody who was trained to use email. It is just universally assumed that everyone can send a mail – and technically, most can – but there is a lot that needs to be done to ensure the efficacy and effectiveness of emails.But we can do lots to solve the problems:

1. One thing is to have an email charter – the rules of the road for email usage.
2. Never use the “reply to all” button it wastes too much time and annoys
3. Keep your email notification off
4. Plan time to manage mails
5. Think – is email the most effective method to get a clear message across – would face-to-face or the telephone be better? More practicle? Clearer?
6. Do not send sensitive mails (giving bad news etc.)
7. If you receive an aggressive mail – speak to the person on the telephone or face-to-face
8. Only send mails when they are essential
9. Do not reply to a mail that has gone back and forth several times, is long and perhaps the subject / content has changed
10. Ambiguous mails waste the time of others and of yourself when you have to reply and add more detail etc. Keep it clear and KISS – Keep it short and simple.
11. Not replying to a mail IS replying to a mail – if you don’t reply, you are sending some sort of message, usually negative.
12. Put yourself in the place of the receiver of your mail, is it clear? Am I clear?
13. Get training in your department and company to effectively manage mail.
14. Only send a mail when necessary – think about the time you are using of others and yourself.
15. Take time to craft a message – the results show and your credibility stays intact.
16. Use clear subject lines that help the reader to understand your communication
17. Never use an online translator to send a mail – most are laughable at best
18. Do not respond immediately to a mail – this is not expected, or should not be, Email is not an Instant Messenger and should not be perceived thus.
19. If you can short-circuit a series of mails that go back and forth with a phone call or a face-to-face conversation take this opportunity.
20. If you send a mail to several people, ensure that each person knows exactly what you want THEM to do. Sending a mail entitled ACTION to many will usually result in nobody doing the action.

All of these points can be more-or-less applied to social media, which will be the next BIG problem in organisational communication – as I said earlier, it’s not the medium, it’s who uses it and how they use it! I think Mr Breton’s ideas are laudable, if not absolutely impractical in real life – there is no point getting rid of a great tool – especially as it is so easy to help people to use it correctly, as a powerful communication tool in business.

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