Dear sherpaj-ga;
Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting
question.
The corporate and business world is just now discovering what you have
already found, that email, while an indisputably valuable tool, is
also a great distraction. One study found that emails in a particular
company were being viewed within six seconds of queuing arrival –
quite an improvement over the much longer time it took the same
employees to answer a ringing telephone. The recovery time from
reading and/or answering an email and returning to work in this
company was found to be roughly 64 seconds as opposed to only a few
seconds of recovery time created by a telephone interruption.
Interestingly, email surveyed was also found, in the majority of
instances, to be completely irrelevant to the employees’ work while
telephone calls were, for the most part, work related.
Here is what the company proposed following their study:
“Reduce the prominence of interruptions through turning off the new
email alert dialogue box and email sound alerts.
Restrict the use of email-to-all messages, and in particular
reply-to-all messages. The use of more targeted email user groups may
assist in this respect.
Set-up the email application to display in the inbox the sender, the
subject and three lines of the email so the recipient can quickly
determine if the email requires immediate attention.
Set-up the email application to check for email at no less than every
45 minutes.
Introduce training to all staff on how to use email in areas such as,
setting email priority, email house keeping with message rules,
effective use of the user groups and address books, constructing
better structured emails.”
THE COST OF EMAIL INTERRUPTION
http://interruptions.net/literature/Jackson-JOSIT-01.pdf
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Instant messaging systems may not be the answer to this problem.
Corporations are already asking themselves if employees are using it
for idle chat more than for useful purposes. The systems are being
kept though, for the time being at least, until employees can learn to
use the systems to their professional advantage. Most companies who
speak highly of IM systems are offices in sprawling complexes,
highrise buildings or ones that are not at a single location. The
systems tend to keep the phones free and allow people to leave
telephone messages, instructions or chat briefly about work related
issues:
IM: CORPORATE TOOL OR DISTRACTION?
http://www.techtv.com/siliconspin/features/story/0,23008,3372785,00.html
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This article doesn’t offer any real solutions but I found it extremely
interesting. It contains a survey that you can give to your own
employees and perhaps gain some insight into what is going on in their
heads. I found it quite surprising that this company’s survey
indicated that their employees considered email their top means of
communication while listing the telephone as the number one
distraction. This same company found that emails in generals did not
pertain to work activities while the telephone obviously does. These
employees unknowing, but honestly, told their employer what he already
suspected. They were complaining about being overloaded with work and
incoming information, but were concentrating more on goofing off than
doing their jobs. It was their JOB that was distracting them from
their extracurricular activities; and not the other way around.
CAN YOU HANDLE IT?
“Individual Management of Incoming Information in the Workplace”
http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/courses/is271/f01/projects/Individual_Overload/Individual%20Overload%20Report.htm
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This article is another one that identifies the problems with
workplace slackers.
'CYBERSLACKERS' ARE CURSE OF WORKPLACE
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/18378.html
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Another alternative is to educate the masses. Teach them to use their
email responsibly and make them understand that this is a tool
provided by the company to enhance the company’s business. (I’ll hit
the high spots):
Reduce email by get off all email lists.
Get "Unlisted email address".
Willpower - Check it only once or twice per day. Incoming mail does
not indicate urgency like a ringing telephone does.
Deal with it. Read e-mail, postpone action, save it, re-read it later,
etc. As you open each e-mail do one of the following:
If it requires a quick response, (it will only take a minute or two),
respond to it and delete it.
If it requires a response but is not the best use of your time, try to
think of a way of delegating it. There's a lot of difference between
"I do it" and "It gets done".
If it is going to take any serious amount of time to respond ( beyond
a minute or two), schedule it for action in your Day Planner and then
download the message, save it, or print it out for future action.
OFFICE SURVIVAL
http://www.crazycolour.com/os/email_14.shtml
Set up two periods each day when you check your email, and don't even
look at it the rest of the day. The decrease in distraction will make
you feel much more in control of your day.
Use your computer files judiciously. Store the message there
immediately or delete. Be diligent about the, "I might need it
someday," cyber hoarding mentality.
Be frugal with your cyber words. If what you have to say isn't really
important, don't say it. Lots of people will thank you for it.
WORKPLACE BUZZ
“Don't let email steal your time”
http://content.monsterindia.com/management/mgt011214_001/
I’ll add a couple of my own here:
Have them save personal emails for a response during their lunch break
or forward the emails home so they can be responded to on off-duty
time.
Have your employees use the priority feature and insist that they
adhere to it. If an incoming email is marked “high priority” they
should answer it. If not, let it go until later. Make it clear that
high priority email should not be sent unless it is “high priority”.
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One study by the University of Western Ontario suggests that email may
be the most costly tool in use in today’s workplace. "Put simply,
email is failing as a productivity tool in the workplace," says
Christina Cavanagh (professor in the Richard Ivey School of Business
at Western and a national expert on the subject). "People enjoy the
convenience of sending relevant information quickly and easily, but
this is far overshadowed by the volumes of low-value emails received
each day."
The university has begun counseling companies on how to deal with
these issues. You can get a complete copy of the study by contacting
Christina Cavanagh at (519) 661-3357 (direct) or Marcia Daniel,
Communications & Public Affairs, at (519) 661-2111 ext. 85468.
EMAIL HURTS WORKPLACE PRODUCTIVITY, NEW RESEARCH SHOWS
http://comms.uwo.ca/media/archives/releases/2002/may_aug/june25.htm
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This example is a white paper on using email in the workplace. It’s a
rude awakening to not only the lost time issues, but the liability and
potentially damaging risks involved. It is imperative that you
approach the matter from a safety, liability and reasonable standpoint
when you make your rules. This one will scare you if you are the one
whose neck is on the line over the email usage in your company. In the
end, it offers a software option to control email traffic within your
company:
SURF CONTROL
“Using email in the workplace”
http://www.surfcontrol.com/general/assets/whitepapers/using_email_in_the_workplace.pdf
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This solution is a bit drastic but gives you an idea as to you what
you can expect from imposed limitations and personal constraints. It
deals with both email and internet usage in the workplace:
USE OF EMAIL AND INTERNET IN THE WORKPLACE
http://www.salaw.co.za/docs/ecp.pdf
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This solution encourages employee monitoring and doesn’t suggest you
be secretive about it either. “Whether or not a company decides to
monitor employee email transmissions, the best way to ensure
consistent, sound email practices in the workplace is to consistently
communicate company expectations to employees.”
RETHINKING EMAIL MONITORING IN TODAY’S WORKPLACE
http://www.nextlevel-consulting.com/officeemail.html
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Here are some sites that offer statistics, information and survey
results regarding email and internet usage in the workplace:
MANAGING INTERNET USE: BIG BROTHER OR DUE DILIGENCE?
http://www.sans.org/rr/policy/internet_use.php
WEB @ WORK SURVEY
http://www.websense.com/company/news/research/webatwork-employee2001-europe.pdf
(Probably an excellent source for solutions too)
SURVEY OF INTERNET USE IN THE WORKPLACE
http://www.vault.com/surveys/internetuse2000/index2000.jsp
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Below you will find that I have carefully defined my search strategy
for you in the event that you need to search for more information. By
following the same type of searches that I did you may be able to
enhance the research I have provided even further. I hope you find
that that my research exceeds your expectations. If you have any
questions about my research please post a clarification request prior
to rating the answer. Otherwise, I welcome your rating and your final
comments and I look forward to working with you again in the near
future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga
INFORMATION SOURCES
Listed and named in research above
SEARCH STRATEGY
SEARCH ENGINE USED:
Google ://www.google.com
SEARCH TERMS USED:
email distraction workplace
email TIME wasted WORKPLACE
"ANSWERING EMAILS" TIME WORKPLACE
email excessive use WORKPLACE |
