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E-mail Overload: Welcome Back to School
There is a sense of feeling increasingly overwhelmed by the problems e-mail creates (also acute for people not in college, since the vast majority of Americans are still on dial-up systems). Employers get frustrated because workers spend so much time messaging one another with questions, problems and data sent merely because it's so easy. As we move towards an instantaneous model of communicating information, the pressure on everyone to manage information rises. Most people aren't getting much help.
It's simple to send instructions and directions via e-mail, but tougher to hold people accountable for messages delivered in ways they struggle to sort, absorb and file. It's easy enough -- and true enough -- to tell a boss or professor you didn't get the e-mail, don't remember it, or lost it in the crush. For example: "I get a ton of cover-your-ass e-mail from subordinates now," e-mailed Daniel, an account executive in Chicago. "People used to make decisions because I wasn't available, but now, why should they? My employees just e-mail me every little decision so they can't get into trouble and are rattled if I haven't answered them in five minutes. They are learning via e-mail not to think for themselves, not to be in positions where they can be held accountable. They just instantly message me. I'm personally already overwhelmed with e-mail from my superiors and customers, not to mention my wife and kids, and my fishing buddies have me on a dozen mailing lists about fishing I don't really need to be on."
Sandra Berman, a teaching assistant at an Ivy League school, says e-mail is a growing and problematic factor in her relationships with students. "I'm always getting messages minutes before papers are due telling me they won't be done, as if notifying me constitutes agreement. I get very complex questions about reports and papers phrased in questions and e-mails that are 25 words long. If you ask to meet somebody, they are amazed. When I e-mail people -- it's amazing, but kids don't set up appointments face-to-face much anymore -- they often tell me, 'oh, I didn't know about that deadline or schedule change.' And you know what? It happens to me all the time, so it could well be true. I can't really absorb the e-mail I get, and surely can't figure out how to sort and organize it, so something is getting lost."
The overload seems to be hitting offices and colleges particularly hard. The computer savvy have a fighting chance -- to some extent they can retaliate and cope with alternate accounts and IDs, and with filtering and sorting and blocking systems. But most students at most schools don't yet have the time, opportunity or skills. E-mail and IM systems are no longer optional; they're essential to registration, course work, communications and a social life.
Students complain with e-mail so ubiquitous, they spend hours e-mailing and IM-ing people who live two floors below or in the dorm next door. "I IM for a lunch date, to get pizza, to walk to class, to check on my friends and assignments," says Jane, a junior at the University of Chicago. "It sounds lazy, but it isn't, it's just easier." Jim Bagwell, a University of Michigan senior, says his friends become alarmed if he hasn't replied to their instant messages in a few minutes. "They think I'm in trouble, or having tech problems. Sometimes they get pissed off. They e-mail me and call me up to ask if I'm on or have gotten their messages. I'm answering messages as fast as I can, because I know people are waiting. I don't meet with professors anymore because they all are online now, and it's easier for them and me to talk through e-mail. I get so many e-mails they back up if I don't check them every few hours ... I'm becoming something of a slave to it. It's a grind. Over the summer, two friends and I went hiking in Canada. We couldn't believe what was waiting for us when we got back."
Bagwell said in some cases, friends were worried or offended that he hadn't replied in two weeks. He lost the chance to join some college groups because people assumed he wasn't interested, since he had taken so long to reply. "You ought to be able to go on a hike without freaking out everybody you know." There are no universally-shared notions of etiquette regarding e-mail, and, as a result, says Bagwell, he and his friends become somewhat compulsive about checking it. "Definitely, the stress level goes up when I'm not near a computer for a couple of hours. That can be hard on work and peace of mind.The consequences and expectation surrounding e-mail are deeper than people realize," he said. "I'm really think twice before going offline for two weeks again, especially when I get a real job. That makes me a POW."
As people get spammed and flamed, their inboxes clog with messages, partially- read documents, conversational threads and URL's. Important messages can get lost or overlooked -- in fact a growing number of messages are believed to be vanishing in the e-mail overload, ignored, forgotten or overlooked. Even for people with sophisticated sorting and organizing systems, managing an inbox has become increasingly complex. Unlike s-mail, there isn't the certain expectation that messages were sent or received.
"There are many levels on which e-mail affects communications," says Jay, a Stanford graduate assistant studying the social implications of E-mail Overload (he will finish his report next year, and we'll post it). "For one thing, people increasingly expect that people won't read or have the time to respond to e-mail. For another, we tend to rush our messages, since we are always afraid of falling behind. That leads to misunderstandings, misinterpretations, and just poor communicating. People format messages differently, so parts of messages are often missed or not seen at all. Others send multiple messages because they are e-mailing so impulsively they're always correcting or clarifying themselves. That's dangerous in personal relationships and business. There is now a frantic, hurried quality to e-mail communications that is getting worse by the year, as the number of people and businesses online grows."
Like Bagwell, people who use computing in their school, work or personal lives can find themselves inundated with messages if they're offline for even a few hours or days. It's not clear when conversations begin -- or when they should and do end. People who come online for the first time often express surprise at the brusque nature of many e-mail communications, since they don't yet know how cluttered their inboxes will become. E-mail has created a culture of such instant response that messagers expect instantaneous replies. Bosses expect employees to be online regularly, sometimes even in off-hours. E-mail alters the nature and content of communications. Letter-writing -- a nearly dead form of culture all by itself -- requires time to construct messages, while recipients have hours or days to consider their replies. Letter writers often put the same time and energy into writing that gamers or programmers put into their work and entertainment. Ordinary mail also makes advertising and marketing material easy to distinguish from personal communications; junk mail is easy to spot and toss. Now, spam often comes disguised as personal e-mail, with individualistic headings, an approach I consider close to fraud.
E-mail is responsible for the growth of distributed organizations, obviously, and it permits people to communicate easily and cheaply across geographical and time differences. But we know little about how people organize and manage the large amounts of information so many receive.
Look for more on this topic in an upcoming column.
"How do you get 4000 unread messages you ask? Well, you only have so much time, so you skim through your mail reading the most obvioulsy important and "saving the rest for later". Repeat for many months, and viola, you can't look at your email without feeling a sense of guilt and dread. Then, once a year or so I would hold my breath, select all and delete. Aaaah."
That just makes me wince I wonder how many people like this it takes until email will get a genuinely good rep as a communications medium.
You know what I mean. If you send an email to some places/persons you usually get almost nothing back. A letter is needed. It's more official and people tend unfortunately take you more seriously.
The death of one man is a tragedy; the death of a million is a statistic --Joseph Stalin
'I don't even have an e-mail address. I have reached an age where my main purpose is not to receive messages.'
--- Umberto Eco, quoted in the New Yorker
--
A member of the first GPL-ed software project in my country
Indeed. As CTO of a company that employs about 100 people I clearly see a division between:
a) the "old guys". They consider email a mail equivalent: you check it once a day and ask your secretary to reply. They see 'too much mail' as 'way too much noise'. These are CFO-types and older sales manager types.
b) The "e-kids". They are younger (typically 35) and consider email a bonus, and see it as akin to the telephone. I.e. it has become a real-time mechanism. They have developed mechanisms to handle the deluge, such as the following (which I am trying to get everyone to buy into)
- Filter into separate directories upon receipt
- Check each minute instead of once an hour (or worse)
- Show the TO line in the list view of received emails
- Live with the fact that sometimes you cannot answer each one immediately, or ever
- Use various email addresses to separate business from private
- Use email aliases and groups were they benefit the project
- concentrate on the half that needs doing quickly: spend 10-20% of your time on that. Spend remaining 80-90% of your time on strategy. Typically, half or more of the emails need not be answered at all.
- Keep received and sent email for three months, no longer (for legal reasons too btw).
- Use ASCII, not HTML
I send a weekly newsletter that always has a few tips, and often sit down with older or less sophisticated managers individually to teach them some of the tricks. That helps a lot, I find.
Michael
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BDOS ERR ON A:>
I imagine that there are good stories being rejected so I can spend time reading this story.
A. No one says you have to read every article on Slashdot. In fact if you do, consider that fact that you have no life.
B. There are other sites on the internet. Use them to find what you consider to be "good" stories and stop complaining.
And the worse part, its a multipart Katz column!!
Why do so many people complain about Katz? He's the only person on Slashdot who actually contributes original content. Slashdot is often criticized for being a linking site. Well you can't please everyone. If you don't like his articles *don't read them*, but more importantly stop whining.
Probably the most important thing I've realized with the "advances" - instant messaging, phone mail, email, relay - is the ability to just say no.
Yes, it sounds trite. But next time the phone rings (cell or otherwise) during your personal time - don't answer it. I make it a point not to answer my cell phone while I'm at lunch, or in the restroom. If it's really important, they'll leave a message or call back.
It's something that actually takes some effort, because all of these devices were formed to say "Notice me! Pay attention to me!" But there is a time and a place for all things (Moderation in Everything is almost becoming my mantra).
If people can not handle this - then perhaps they need to learn to let go too.
Of course, I could be wrong.
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
Yup it's easy. At one of the places I freelance, people email everybody in the company with things like "I'm away for the afternoon." This is in an office of under 40 people!
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
It's being overused to the point that it's being used as a substitute for face to face and voice communication.
.com layoffs. In stead of a director/manager standing in front of you having to answer tough questions, they just de-activate your security badge, throw your stuff out the window and escort you to your car.
I've seen it used in situations where people are too afraid to deliver bad news or get in a possibly heated confrontation that they just fire an email off without thinking. One example is the
E-mail is great for factual information but is very poor at conveying feelings or the tone of the person.
So now we have people sending out BCE (SPAM) that the customers end up paying for, Passive people using it as a substitute for face to face conversation, and enormous amounts of useless information (read CC: & FW).
Of course there are always exceptions to the rule.
I have to say that one of the nicest things for me is that I observe the Jewish Sabbath, and from Friday Sundown to Saturday Sundown I don't touch my computer or phone or TV. I totaly forget my email. I don't worry about my bills or anything else. There is nothing so important in my email that it can't wait until sunday.
Thankfuly the biggest list I'm on is mostly of people who observe the Sabbath, so it goes to about 0 for that day anyhow.
But try it sometime, take a day off from the modern world, its nice. And it gives you a nice chance to have a conversation face to face.
Erlang Developer and podcaster
Since when does "usage, volume and demographics" fall under "social and psychological impact"?
And how is it "surprisingly little"? Compared to what? How much we know about the psychological impact of postal letters?
Why does Katz always sound like he's trying for a Unit 5 Investigation during sweeps week?
These people are simply not prepared to lead a meaningful life, and use their computer as a way to escape social situations that they never learned to properly cope with.
Ahh, the elitism begins. You believe your methods of living and communicating are superior to others. Who are you to determine what constitutes a meaningful life for other people?
A meaingingful life can be had burying your head in books at the library, boarding your plane as a kamikaze pilot (a deeply religious experience), traveling the world in your yacht with a babe on each shoulder, or yes, even sitting in front of a computer.
He is more concise and he offers some simple rules that would help stem the tide if everyone abided by them.
The meat of his point is summed up in the following paragraph:
Just because we have become electronically interconnected, we have not acquired the automatic right to send a message to anyone we wish, nor the automatic obligation to respond to every message we receive.
Here, here!
This is a policy failure at a CTO level. It indicates that no adequate policy exists. If that is the case, then it follows that the company is likely to be hurt by any lawsuit that suppenaes records, as well as opening up the company to suits by empoyees. There is no excuse at all for ever including a 20mb PowerPoint presentation in email, unless it is ultra secret and no one else should see it. Even then, why would it be in that form. Yes, I understand that there are a few high-level circumstances where such info must be kept absolutely secure, but to send it through email without encrytion negates that premise. Within a company, assuming that they have a resonable secured network, there is no need to send this things all over -- in fact it is an offense to good business practice. Almost all modern mail clients can handle URLs effectively. Most modern business tools can handle multiple simultaneous edits of content. The concept is called Groupware. Adobe claims to invented it, but it is simply a combination of the USENET, FTP, and web technologies. Regardless of platform combinations, there are tech solutions available. The key is documentation, education, and a little bit of technology, in that order. In your quest for senior management to adopt and enforce reasonable standards, which might get you a good promotion or raise, here are a few points to help. If the network load on the mail servers was reduced, what would be the cost savings? Fewer employees, less maintainance, higher uptime? If all staff involved in a project could simultaneously edit a presentation, document, graphic, etc., and then they could be discussed as a group, how much time would be saved? How many manhours? How much diskspace/server time? If each employee was able to see the proposed changes by the others, how much duplication of effort could be eliminated? Sending out a document (in any form) via email can only tell you who recieved it. A web server can tell you not only who viewed the document, but which pages they viewed. Think about it. "I disagree with your whole presentation." "Umm, but according to the logs, you never looked past the opening page, Mr. Ihateyou, would you like to see the rest? I can do it now, but I assumed that we all had seen it." It can also tell you how long the viewer spent on each page, although this is subject to many other factors. It can also tell who dialed in from home to read the pages again. If I were a manager, and thankfully I no longer am, this would be one factor that I would care about. Who cared about it enough to give it a second round? Again, I say: documentation, education, and a little technology. The order is significant. First the policy is defined, in writing and distributed to all employees. Then we teach them to use the tools they have been ignoring. Then we provide the bridge. Pretty simple, eh? Like I said before, do you want a big raise or promotion? This is a great opportunity for you. One caveat is to know all of the solutions for what you propose before you propose them. The best way to do this is to get "unofficial" outside quotes, on the nature of "what if", from at least 3 sources before you take on the task. You can find references to much of that info here. "What if we used Apache and Php to set up group-password protected areas to handle group documents?" What would the cost be? Or do we even have such functionality available now, in our existing network stucture? Next is to discover the impact on the decision makers. Does your CEO actually handle his own mail or does his admin handle it for him. This is an important point. Does your CTO (or vp technology, or CIO, or director of Technical Operations) handle their own email or do they pawn it off? I once had a CEO who would have his secretary read all of his email and fax him copies of the most important (in her estimation) ones to him wherever he was. To all others, she would simply reply that he was too busy to be bothered by their email. She did this for two years with the CEO's wife and mistress, before she got caught and fired. :-)
Anyone, unless they have an MSCE could quickly configure your network for such information sharing. My intent is not to demean those that have an MSCE certificate, but instead to imply that such changes require experience and such servers are better not left to NT.
Oh geeze, I'm gonna get basted alive by the NT folks, so let me amplify. In my humble opinion, NT is now able to compete with certain variants on the front end. I respect the work of David Crocker in creating this platform, as he did so many other places. I respected his work in creating VMS, although I hated it from the first day I saw it.
NT2000 is far worse than VMS in that it, oh never mind....
Regardless of the platform that your business has adopted, you can make a difference. You can stop the bloat, at least within your company.
I wish you luck. Contact me if you need some advice.
-- Schuye