End All Be Email.

Classroom:

A few weeks ago I posted an article on our class discussion board regarding no email Fridays. This notion that management eliminated the use of email on one day shocked me! I went through the discussions regarding that post and thought more about the idea of elimination emails or even elimination meetings on Fridays, as one classmate suggested.

Here is the article for reference: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=2939232

I guess what startled me most about this article was not that 2 million emails were sent a day but that the workplace was seemingly improved by this elimination. The articles relays that "workplace relationships were improved." My surprise dervies from how such a tool that seems to solve our communication problems, alleviates some personal engagement ones.

I sat today and pondered what my work place, what my work day would be like without email. While I find it to be a resourceful tool and effective, I also find it to be our crutch. Why pick up the phone and call someone when I can shoot them a quick note? Why go walk over to someone's desk when I can stay in my own? It's not lazinesss that hinders social workplace interactions. I believe it's convenience that does. Email is convenient because it's immediate as a phone call and we are able to have doucmentation of that outreach. And that's what we really need, right? Documentation, documentation, documentation.

What we have learned in the classroom is that communication technologies can negatively affect an environment. We have also learned that communication technologies are tricky to implement and to be adopted by the workforce.

Cubicle: While email is adopted by my workforce, I do in fact believe it is too heavily relied upon. There are times when it is necessary but on the opposite of that, there are times when it is not. We discussed our communications vehicles and discussed eliminating the e-newsletter which is produced and distributed weekly. Before redesigning and investing in what we saw to be a "dying cow" we tested its absence in the workforce and not only is there a need for a weekly communication- ie to deliver account events, happenings, news, etc, but there was a notice of its absence. Upon the relaunch of the new e-newsletter, we received some positive feedback, receiving any at all to me is great! But it seems that this vehicle which is not new in theory or practice, brought new and refreshing content. My point here is that email sends to be the end and be all of communication in the workplace, but I really am interested to see what happens when we start to eliminate it to improve the workplace and furthermore what the next end all and be all communication technology may be?