Banning emails at the office: an impossible mission?
30 November 2011
Read by 1926 persons
Several companies are internally trying to eliminate emails, accused of causing stress and loss of concentration. For more dialogue or other equally time-consuming tools?
Thierry Breton, former minister heading the IT group Atos Origin, caused a sensation six months ago by announcing the imminent death of email in his company. He did it again this weekend, this time in the Wall Street Journal. What had mainly appeared as a clever publicity stunt could it become a major trend?
Researchers and workplace specialists have long pointed out the excesses of electronic messaging. In October, a study by ORSE, the Observatory on Corporate Social Responsibility, described employees overwhelmed by an almost continuous flow of emails. For employees, this avalanche of information would harm concentration, and therefore efficiency.
At the company level, the inappropriate use of emails would reduce team cohesion. Managers would even use them to manipulate employees, knowingly excluding collaborators from mailing lists or favoring a dry and harsh tone, explained Fernando Lagrana, a management professor in Geneva, this Monday in Les Echos.
Well before Atos Origin, companies have therefore tried to ban them, at least temporarily. Across the Atlantic, Intel was one of the first to invent the "email-free day". In France, Canon played along last year, during an event intended to become quarterly. "Carbon copy has become an internal communication method that encourages irresponsibility", noted the organizers, for example, urging employees to favor direct or telephone conversations.
Collaborative tools instead
Behind these more or less similar initiatives, the message is not always the same. Encouraging dialogue instead of exchanging emails aims to strengthen conviviality or to reduce the risks of misunderstandings. "Email cannot replace the spoken word", assures Thierry Breton in the Wall Street Journal.
It is however through instant messaging and a Facebook-type interface that the CEO of Atos Origin wants to replace emails in the next 18 months. Online meeting minutes on Google Docs, followed by project management progress tracking or idea boxes on intranets... online spaces would allow collaborators to exchange without constantly interrupting their work.
The tool is not to blame
The initiative, however, leaves Thierry Venin, a researcher at the University of Pau, specializing in the links between information and communication technologies (ICT) and workplace stress, skeptical. "We can have doubts about the viability of the project. Similar experiences have resulted in resounding failures", he assures. Because if deciding to abandon emails internally is relatively easy, "what about relationships with clients?" "Employees will continue to receive messages from outside that will inevitably generate internal circulation within the company", he comments.
Especially since, according to him, the tool itself is not to blame, but rather "the spiral of immediacy" that dictates its law in companies, and more broadly in contemporary society. "When you receive an email, technology does not push you to respond to it, unlike a ringing phone or someone who comes to talk to you. And yet, everyone uses email like a chat, responding to it immediately, while the tool only creates opportunities", he observes.
Eliminating emails, a losing battle? The Wall Street Journal sees only one explanation for Atos Origin's success: "Mr. Breton has a very effective way to bypass his mailbox: a secretary"...
Lexpress.fr
Published on November 29, 2011.
Posted online on November 30, 2011.
Thierry Breton, former minister heading the IT group Atos Origin, caused a sensation six months ago by announcing the imminent death of email in his company. He did it again this weekend, this time in the Wall Street Journal. What had mainly appeared as a clever publicity stunt could it become a major trend?
Researchers and workplace specialists have long pointed out the excesses of electronic messaging. In October, a study by ORSE, the Observatory on Corporate Social Responsibility, described employees overwhelmed by an almost continuous flow of emails. For employees, this avalanche of information would harm concentration, and therefore efficiency.
At the company level, the inappropriate use of emails would reduce team cohesion. Managers would even use them to manipulate employees, knowingly excluding collaborators from mailing lists or favoring a dry and harsh tone, explained Fernando Lagrana, a management professor in Geneva, this Monday in Les Echos.
Well before Atos Origin, companies have therefore tried to ban them, at least temporarily. Across the Atlantic, Intel was one of the first to invent the "email-free day". In France, Canon played along last year, during an event intended to become quarterly. "Carbon copy has become an internal communication method that encourages irresponsibility", noted the organizers, for example, urging employees to favor direct or telephone conversations.
Collaborative tools instead
Behind these more or less similar initiatives, the message is not always the same. Encouraging dialogue instead of exchanging emails aims to strengthen conviviality or to reduce the risks of misunderstandings. "Email cannot replace the spoken word", assures Thierry Breton in the Wall Street Journal.
It is however through instant messaging and a Facebook-type interface that the CEO of Atos Origin wants to replace emails in the next 18 months. Online meeting minutes on Google Docs, followed by project management progress tracking or idea boxes on intranets... online spaces would allow collaborators to exchange without constantly interrupting their work.
The tool is not to blame
The initiative, however, leaves Thierry Venin, a researcher at the University of Pau, specializing in the links between information and communication technologies (ICT) and workplace stress, skeptical. "We can have doubts about the viability of the project. Similar experiences have resulted in resounding failures", he assures. Because if deciding to abandon emails internally is relatively easy, "what about relationships with clients?" "Employees will continue to receive messages from outside that will inevitably generate internal circulation within the company", he comments.
Especially since, according to him, the tool itself is not to blame, but rather "the spiral of immediacy" that dictates its law in companies, and more broadly in contemporary society. "When you receive an email, technology does not push you to respond to it, unlike a ringing phone or someone who comes to talk to you. And yet, everyone uses email like a chat, responding to it immediately, while the tool only creates opportunities", he observes.
Eliminating emails, a losing battle? The Wall Street Journal sees only one explanation for Atos Origin's success: "Mr. Breton has a very effective way to bypass his mailbox: a secretary"...
Lexpress.fr
Published on November 29, 2011.
Posted online on November 30, 2011.
