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On Wall Street, a High-Ranking Few Still Avoid Email (reuters.com)
The world may be increasingly becoming digital, but a small group of the Wall Street elite refuses to say anything substantive in an email, text, or chat, and some will not communicate digitally at all. From a Reuters report: This group, which includes top bankers like JPMorgan Chase & Co Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon and powerful investors like Carl Icahn and Berkshire Hathaway Inc's Warren Buffett, were eschewing electronic communications long before the probe of U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's emails and the recent hacks of her campaign manager's account made headlines. Some on Wall Street are nostalgic for a time when in-person conversations or phone calls were the norm, but others believe the words they type and send can come back to haunt them. Prosecutors have built insider trading, mortgage fraud and rate-rigging cases on embarrassing emails over the past several years, and they are often the most memorable part. Recent email woes among Washington power players have provided yet another reason for bankers to try to protect private correspondence from prying eyes. Dimon uses email but is known to keep his replies short and factual, favoring "yes," "no" and "thank you."
Where I work, sometimes you want it on-the-record. I want proof I said something, or did something, far more often than I'd ever want to be able to deny such actions later on.
I'm betting this policy of theirs predates email... it was probably already in place back when written/dictated letters were the norm.
On a related note, I work with someone who follows a similar practice. I've figured out she will call me if she doesn't want something on record. She's not a higher up... more of a not-completely-trustworthy coworker who relies on unsubstantiated appeals to authority as a stick. If she can't reach me by phone, she'll wait until she can catch me in person. With her, I've learned to follow up on any verbal exchanges with an email asking for clarification/elucidation - basically forcing the conversation into a more-auditable mode.
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