Email Addiction
I read an article about email addiction the other day and found myself disagreeing with the overall idea that email is a disruption in the workplace. Perhaps it's because I'm of a younger generation that has learned to multi-task while using the computer, but I find IMs and Email to be far less of an interruption than a phone call or visit from a coworker. I agree that once you are interrupted it takes a few minutes to get back into the flow of what you were doing, but responding to something electronically just seems to fit into that flow for me. I can manage multiple discussions on various topics while also working on my current project because I can flip to that window, answer a question and flip back to the main window. I have control over my response time, I can complete a piece of code before answering their next message and it's not seen as rude. If the person needs to call someone to get more information to answer my question, I can keep working. Alternately, if that same person drops by my cubical, I have to give them my undivided attention, they will often make necessary calls from my phone, I will be completely wrapped up in this one thing.
In the 12 steps there are many items I disagree with. As with most offices, our office uses a Microsoft Exchange server. With this type of server there is no "checking" email, it just appears when it arrives to the server and a popup is shown in the corner of my screen with a summary of the message. If it's important, I can click on it, respond and go back to work. If not, I can leave it for later. I often set messages in my inbox back to "unread" status because it serves as a to-do list for me. Egan doesn't say what to do with an email that doesn't fit within her two-minute rule.. ignore it? That just wastes someone else's time having to follow up on something you didn't respond to. And I believe it's a bad idea to delete any email that is work-related. I often refer back to email I have received, as well as email I have sent as a means to avoid having to re-type information I have previously provided, to prove I sent/said something, or to reference an inconsistency in information being provided. My office has a problem with what I consider "over communication" where messages about projects will be copied to most of the team plus managers much of the time. This is something I would like to see improved, but I can filter through it pretty quickly and tell which messages apply to me and which can be ignored. Managers get it worse however and this leads to frustration on my part when I email a manager about something and it goes unanswered for days. Apparently some managers have adopted a system where they tell those they manage to preface the subject with READ THIS: or they probably won't see it.
As with any technology, email can be overused, and people as a whole will need to learn to integrate it into their lives effectively, but suggesting that it is a bad habit needing to be broken goes against the realities of today's business world.
