Caught between two minds
Interesting article.
On the one hand I agree that a vast amount of e-mail in my business is simply people trying to leave a (e-)paper-trail so that when things are misunderstood, forgotten or screwed up, there's a big bat to hit someone with when necessary. I hate that - middle managers wheel out ages old e-mails that may or may not have been read, filed, or remembered as proof that they demanded something be done or that staff had agreed to do something where directors and senior leaders use it as an excuse to just bark orders at people without needing to waste time on diplomacy or getting involved in time consuming discussions.
E-mail - the friend of the JFDI manager
On the other hand e-mail really is a massively useful reminder tool when managed correctly for busy managers, project leaders and stressed IT techs.When you've got 100's of different things clamouring for attention how do you remember it all and priorities effectively. Paper and pen can help, but it's counter-intuitive to today's generation of tech-savvy managers and smartphone-toting IT staff.
I've got to sit on the fence here, I think. Not using e-mails to remind co-workers about requests I can't agree with but stopping people from sending mails just as some form of evidence or as substitutes for actual interaction I certainly can.
Perhaps this is less a problem about using mail and more a problem about the culture of fear propagating throughout our businesses? If people weren't always frightened that 'x' comment or 'y' request was going to come back to bite them would they spend the effort entering e-mail ping pong in the first place?
