By Rebecca Surtees
I admit that I regularly have the urge to shut down my inbox, crawl into a quiet corner of the office and rock gently to the sound of the phones ringing. Why? Simple – an acute case of email overload.
Since email was created in 1971 by Ray Tomlinson, it has revolutionised every aspect of our lives – two million emails are now sent every minute in the UK. And my reaction to the perils of my inbox isn’t one of a kind in the business realm, as this week’s eye-opening BBC Four documentary on the UK’s use (or should that be overuse?) of email confirmed.
According to a recent study, we can spend up to half of our working day trawling through our inboxes, leaving us frustrated and unproductive. The pleasure doesn’t come cheap either – one FTSE firm estimated that dealing with pointless email costs the company a staggering £39 million per year. Add to this the fact that 14 million Britons take sick days due to stress every year and you’ve got yourself a problem.
So, how can businesses control email without letting it control us? Cutting down on unnecessary internal email, designating ‘email free’ days and even hiring highly-trained email consultants to train employees on how to cope with their inboxes are all admirable suggestions. But it all boils down to three simple rules: write carefully, target your email and, most importantly, get basic training on how to effectively use your inbox.
But in today’s increasingly mobile technology landscape – BlackBerry devices being a particular culprit – I wonder if we’ll ever truly get a handle on the situation? Professor Gary Cooper, a government advisor on stress in the workplace, seems to have hit the nail on the head: ‘For me, email is one of the most pernicious stressors of our time’ – I couldn’t agree with you more Gary.
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