Monday, January 15, 2007

Now if I could just conquer my e-mail....

We've conquered the binky, I think. Good thing, too, because the last week or two at work has been intense. Why?

E-mail.

I'm completely convinced that e-mail actually hinders communication. However, lately I've been getting more e-mail than ever that requires me to act in some way. I've also had more e-mails than ever that were part of some CYA electronic daisy chain of torture. You know what I'm talking about - you send an e-mail to a client to ask a simple question. They forward it to the entire "team." Everyone on the team responds, but when they do they "reply to all." And pretty soon, even the junior project assistant is adding her two cents because she just wants everyone to know that she's participating in the process. And oh yeah, no one ever actually answers the original question.

It's totally annoying.

At the end of last week I staged my own personal protest and started calling people. On the telephone. I even left one guy a message saying that I was calling him because I didn't want to start up the circling e-mail thing again. You know what? He called me back the next day and we worked out the details of a fairly complicated project in about 7 minutes. The same thing would have taken two days and 18 messages via e-mail.

Yep. The phone. It's amazing technology.

P.S. As I was writing this our new puppy peed on the living room rug. The job never ends, does it?

2 comments:

Corie said...

I feel so guilty emailing you... I'll call from now on!

The email ring-of-torture must end.
CR

Two Job Mama said...

It's only torture if you copy the e-mail to, oh..., 12 other people. Individual e-mails will be accepted any time!