Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Social Emails

… or as a more elaborate title "In Defense of Social Emails".

Studies abound on the cost of social emails. Debates rage about whether or not employees should use corporate resources to exchange fluff with personal friends in and out of the office.

I think I am coming around to the point of view that social emails are of benefit to the corporation and that the benefit could be well-measured .

I am prompted to write by having just sent a small image to my buddy Bill. Bill works at a well-known university which I refuse to name so as not to embarrass YorkU. Bill is surrounded by colleagues, and sometimes expresses the wish that he wasn't!

I do most of my client's work from my home-office. I work "alone".

Bill knows this.

We exchange a couple of whimsical emails each day, usually related to something we had been discussing over an ice-cream cone from McDonalds over the past few days.

It takes me about one minute to snag a small image or a link to a news story and send an email to Bill. It takes Bill about one minute to admire the image, chuckle and reply "Right On Dude!" or similar.

Cost of the exchange – two minutes twice a day.

Interruption to work schedules should be factored in but only on one side, and then only if time-management skills are lacking.

I'll be sending the email when I'm in transition from one task to another, perhaps checking mail after finishing my current tasks for Jim and before starting the tasks for Colleen (names of real clients!). It's part of my shifting-in-seat time.

Bill, if his time-management skills are up to snuff, will check his emails in between tasks, or on a schedule every two hours. (If time-management skills need help, I can help there too).

I have worked in downtown offices where a tea-break is taken, morning and afternoon, necessitating a trip to the cafeteria in the basement, a 10-minute conversation on the way there at a colleague's cubicle, a wait in line (everybody goes for break at 10:30), a sit-down at a table, a wait for the elevator, 10-minute conversation on the way back at a colleague's cubicle – you see the cost mount up.

How does my 2+2 minute social email stack up against your staff's dilatoriness?

Thursday, September 10, 2009

But see also Bruce Power fires 100 over Internet, email use

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