While e-mail has proved itself to be highly effective over the years, think some folks are getting a bit crazed with it?
I'm just now getting to the stage where I have almost caught up with my inbox after taking a three-week break from the internet's.
One thing I noticed in working my way through the mound that built up in my inbox… I can always spot the crack berry users easily - they are the ones who when they do not get a reply in a few minutes send the message again. It will have to be something I incorporate into my work with some companies… send note, wait for reply.
It must be part of the "WANT IT NOW!" culture these days, or the effects of instant messaging, that when a note does not receive a reply instantly, you keep hammering away at it. I must find a more effective way of communicating to the companies I work with that I only check e-mail twice a day, once at the start of the day, and once at the end of the day, as that message just is not getting through with some people.
In a previous post you saw the ultimate in questionable manners or lack of any etiquette skills, where a blogging friend was out on a date, and the date spent most of the evening self-engrossed in his crack berry. Here in the frozen north, more provinces are passing laws against using any kind of mobile electronic device while driving and from conversations I’ve had over the years, they should likely include some portable vibration devices . And some nitwits think they can still multi-task while driving. Uh-huh. More than once I’ve had to take a sudden evasive man oeuvre because some doffs is yapping into his phone while drinking a coffee, eating lunch, playing with the GPS, and adjusting his shorts, when he should be DRIVING. But, the repeated re-sending of notes from a few clients… it reminded me of one moment in time, lo, those many years ago, when having been out on a date with a particular gentleman, he called a few days later to continue the conversation, but I happened to be working late on a project in the office. When I got home, the message light was flashing on the phone, and when I dialed into the call answer service, discovered to my surprise that there were over 20 messages waiting. While humorously wondering who had written my phone number on a men’s room wall, there were a few messages from friends, and then the date had left 16 messages in one evening. They ranged from a "hi, call me when you get a minute," to raging because I hadn't called back yet. when I did call him back the next morning, I read him the riot act and gave him a healthy piece of my thoughts on the matter, and advised he should get a life and forget my number.
I think maybe I'll start charging these companies by the e-mail message.
Of course, it is always hilariously funny to watch the crack berry addicts when there is a system-wide outage… they get the shakes worse than an addict in need of a fix or some drunk with a case of the D.T.s. I can picture some days some of those who sit there hitting the "check e-mail" button every few seconds waiting for something to come in so they can jump on it.
Back in the days of EDP departments, punch cards, keypunch machines, and mainframes, the only way to communicate electronically was to send a one-line message to a user's terminal from the mainframe console. It was the same with the old IBM System/36. Then, along came PROFS, which, many programmers used to tell me got more complex the more you used it. Then there was a messaging system built into the old Novell NetWare systems, which some companies used to call the communications coordinator.
Which, when you compare it to e-mail systems these days looks positively antiquated.
Articles in Thursday's newspaper were discussing how Twitter has become the system for many people to communicate instant updates, for example, during the recent California earthquake, which had the news out 20 minutes or more before the news departments got wind of it taking place. But, it could be useful, as it is restricted to a maximum of 140 characters.
Everything has a purpose, when used properly, and in moderation. It reminds me of a line from Julia Child from some years back, when she said that you could eat anything, as long as it was in moderation.
But, as many tales from the cubicle farm have told, you sometimes get an e-mail from the co-worker sitting on the other side of your cubicle wall. Those used to crack me up, it struck me as positively hilarious in the view of workplace insanity. You couldn’t just say the same thing directly? Or pick up the phone and speak it?
Remember the days of multi-part memorandum forms? You wrote a message in the first section, sent the original and the carbon copies to the recipient, keeping the back copy for your file. They would write a reply and send the original back, keeping the copy in their files. You get the idea.
And the number of articles written about bad manners, or lack of manners, etc., along with crack berry etiquette tells me that this has become a major issue these days. People complain about spouses who are constantly hovering over their crack berry while on a family vacation. Some who have interrupted a romantic interlude to answer an e-mail from work on their device? One column which I commented on a while back about someone who got in hot water for dealing with e-mail messages while attending the funeral of the father of a now former best friend. Hell, I've even come across a few people who continue to deal with e-mails while seated upon the great white throne. You can’t even have a sit-down in peace anymore? Being a typical male, the throne room is the best place for reading, not fiddling with a tiny keyboard on some electronic gadget.
After all this, what I'm getting around to is that e-mail has its uses and place in the grand scheme of things in the business world. How else would the double-speak masters come out with their lists of corporate-speak for the masses to study and adopt? Friends, who I love hearing from, they could write multiple times per day, but in the business world… these crack berry fanatics really need to take a break.
I'm just now getting to the stage where I have almost caught up with my inbox after taking a three-week break from the internet's.
One thing I noticed in working my way through the mound that built up in my inbox… I can always spot the crack berry users easily - they are the ones who when they do not get a reply in a few minutes send the message again. It will have to be something I incorporate into my work with some companies… send note, wait for reply.
It must be part of the "WANT IT NOW!" culture these days, or the effects of instant messaging, that when a note does not receive a reply instantly, you keep hammering away at it. I must find a more effective way of communicating to the companies I work with that I only check e-mail twice a day, once at the start of the day, and once at the end of the day, as that message just is not getting through with some people.
In a previous post you saw the ultimate in questionable manners or lack of any etiquette skills, where a blogging friend was out on a date, and the date spent most of the evening self-engrossed in his crack berry. Here in the frozen north, more provinces are passing laws against using any kind of mobile electronic device while driving and from conversations I’ve had over the years, they should likely include some portable vibration devices . And some nitwits think they can still multi-task while driving. Uh-huh. More than once I’ve had to take a sudden evasive man oeuvre because some doffs is yapping into his phone while drinking a coffee, eating lunch, playing with the GPS, and adjusting his shorts, when he should be DRIVING. But, the repeated re-sending of notes from a few clients… it reminded me of one moment in time, lo, those many years ago, when having been out on a date with a particular gentleman, he called a few days later to continue the conversation, but I happened to be working late on a project in the office. When I got home, the message light was flashing on the phone, and when I dialed into the call answer service, discovered to my surprise that there were over 20 messages waiting. While humorously wondering who had written my phone number on a men’s room wall, there were a few messages from friends, and then the date had left 16 messages in one evening. They ranged from a "hi, call me when you get a minute," to raging because I hadn't called back yet. when I did call him back the next morning, I read him the riot act and gave him a healthy piece of my thoughts on the matter, and advised he should get a life and forget my number.
I think maybe I'll start charging these companies by the e-mail message.
Of course, it is always hilariously funny to watch the crack berry addicts when there is a system-wide outage… they get the shakes worse than an addict in need of a fix or some drunk with a case of the D.T.s. I can picture some days some of those who sit there hitting the "check e-mail" button every few seconds waiting for something to come in so they can jump on it.
Back in the days of EDP departments, punch cards, keypunch machines, and mainframes, the only way to communicate electronically was to send a one-line message to a user's terminal from the mainframe console. It was the same with the old IBM System/36. Then, along came PROFS, which, many programmers used to tell me got more complex the more you used it. Then there was a messaging system built into the old Novell NetWare systems, which some companies used to call the communications coordinator.
Which, when you compare it to e-mail systems these days looks positively antiquated.
Articles in Thursday's newspaper were discussing how Twitter has become the system for many people to communicate instant updates, for example, during the recent California earthquake, which had the news out 20 minutes or more before the news departments got wind of it taking place. But, it could be useful, as it is restricted to a maximum of 140 characters.
Everything has a purpose, when used properly, and in moderation. It reminds me of a line from Julia Child from some years back, when she said that you could eat anything, as long as it was in moderation.
But, as many tales from the cubicle farm have told, you sometimes get an e-mail from the co-worker sitting on the other side of your cubicle wall. Those used to crack me up, it struck me as positively hilarious in the view of workplace insanity. You couldn’t just say the same thing directly? Or pick up the phone and speak it?
Remember the days of multi-part memorandum forms? You wrote a message in the first section, sent the original and the carbon copies to the recipient, keeping the back copy for your file. They would write a reply and send the original back, keeping the copy in their files. You get the idea.
And the number of articles written about bad manners, or lack of manners, etc., along with crack berry etiquette tells me that this has become a major issue these days. People complain about spouses who are constantly hovering over their crack berry while on a family vacation. Some who have interrupted a romantic interlude to answer an e-mail from work on their device? One column which I commented on a while back about someone who got in hot water for dealing with e-mail messages while attending the funeral of the father of a now former best friend. Hell, I've even come across a few people who continue to deal with e-mails while seated upon the great white throne. You can’t even have a sit-down in peace anymore? Being a typical male, the throne room is the best place for reading, not fiddling with a tiny keyboard on some electronic gadget.
After all this, what I'm getting around to is that e-mail has its uses and place in the grand scheme of things in the business world. How else would the double-speak masters come out with their lists of corporate-speak for the masses to study and adopt? Friends, who I love hearing from, they could write multiple times per day, but in the business world… these crack berry fanatics really need to take a break.
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