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Hear No Evil, See No Evil — E-mail Kills the Phone

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the what-no-shouting-over-cube-walls dept.

coondoggie writes to tell us that in a recent study e-mail has overtaken telephony as the most common workplace communication tool. "Research reveals that 100% of the end-users surveyed use e-mail, followed by fixed-line telephones (80%), mobile telephones (76%) and instant messaging (66%). The study points out the three most ubiquitous technologies increase productivity the most. Over 70% of the end-users surveyed say e-mail impacts positively on their productivity, followed by conventional fixed-line telephony (53%) and mobile telephony (52%). From a productivity point-of-view, the research shows that instant messaging, blogs and softphones are considered most disruptive, and could negatively impact productivity if not managed properly."

7 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. E-mail survey, right? by Animats · · Score: 5, Funny

    Research reveals that 100% of the end-users surveyed use e-mail

    Let me guess. They did the survey via e-mail.

    1. Re:E-mail survey, right? by garcia · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Let me guess. They did the survey via e-mail.

      We'll they're better off doing it that way then by phone. It's not like I answer my phone for any number I don't recognize.

      For just about anything I prefer chatting, e-mail, or any other electronic method as my time isn't 100% devoted to a single person. I can do 100 other things while responding to electronic messages. With a phone call my attention is solely with one person and that's just not a good way to operate for MOST functions of my day.

  2. Discussed this with my boss... by Smidge204 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I discussed this point with my boss once. I argued for e-mail:

    There may be a record (via phone company) of when a call took place, what number was dialed, and how long it took...

    ...but with an e-mail, all parties involved have a record of when it was sent, who received it, and what was said.

    That last part is hard to do with a phone conversation, legally anyway.
    =Smidge=

    1. Re:Discussed this with my boss... by SCHecklerX · · Score: 5, Interesting

      ...but with an e-mail, all parties involved have a record of when it was sent, who received it, and what was said.


      which is why my manager at my last job would always call me, or stop by my cube or grab me as I walked by in the hall instead of email whenever she wanted to ensure that whatever idiotic thing she wanted done (the joys of being a network security guy) could not be traced back to her. But, I'd send her a note about it each time anyway. I like having my get out of jail free card. "just to verify, you wanted me to do $foo, and understand the implications, right?"
  3. Triumvirate Communicae by skoaldipper · · Score: 5, Informative

    Email for instruction. Telephone for clarification. Remote VNC when the other two fail.

    --
    I hope, when they die, cartoon characters have to answer for their sins.
  4. My current boss does that. by khasim · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I lost points on my last review because of my "over reliance" on email. And I'll probably lose points on the next one.

    Don't forget that in a lot of email systems I can tell when you've opened my email and whether you deleted it or not.

    Email is its own paper trail AND with magical CYA powers. And that really annoys a certain type of personality.

  5. Reminds me of our new VOIP system by Kadin2048 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A few months ago my company came through the office and tore out everyone's regular phones and replaced them with super-duper Cisco VOIP sets.

    The things are crap (you have to sign into them every morning ... as if I don't have enough passwords to remember already, now I need to sign in to my freaking phone?) but they do have one upshot. If I just don't sign into the thing, nobody can call me -- the calls just roll right over into voice mail. And since my voicemails get emailed to me as attachments (where I can conveniently play them at faster-than-normal speed), I can basically ignore the phone handset and do everything through my PC.

    By my unofficial count, I'd say something like 30-50 percent of the office is doing the same thing, either intentionally or just because they can't remember to sign into the phones in the morning. I think it's actually boosted productivity -- nobody uses the phones to call around the office anymore, unless they've already sent an email or an IM to see if the person is available on the other end.

    Maybe they're not so bad after all...

    --
    "Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."