I laughed when I saw the BBC story 'E-mail makes office workers lazy'. A sports body has suggested that email is causing health problems, as lazy staff email each other rather than walk around the office to talk to colleagues. It proposes an 'Email Free Friday' to make exployees step out more.
I'll admit to being an email junkie, and I know many teachers that are too. Surely email is good for society, saving trees (fewer wasted memos, less junk mail that goes straight in the bin) and achieving quicker responses to work business without the intrusiveness of the phone.
But we're also highly sociable people, and chat by email, set up face-to-face meetings (and drinking sessions) by email, and can't imagine life without it. So if there's an Email Free Friday at my workplace, I'll head for the nearest cafe with a wireless Internet connection...
1 comment:
The article seems to miss the point about e-mail -- that it's a project management tool. E-mail creates an audit trail that spoken communication does not. You can also develop a discussion thread that permits policy and procedure to be explored, explained and (if necessary) revised. Spoken communication isn't worth the paper it's written on. ;-)
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