email @ work? not what you think, maybe.

[Papa Deuce]

My wife just checked her work email ( from home, while not being paid ) and she got an email from one of the higher ups telling all employees to limit their business email. Do not reply to anybody just to say Thank You. Never "reply to all" unless absolutely necessary. Zero personal stuff - email will be scanned and read by management as needed ( BTW, my wife is fairly high management )....

And the reason for this? Well, according to the email ( LOL ) it is because it can waste up to 15 minutes a day of "productive endeavors"....

Seems quite excessive to me.

 

[I'mNoPrince]

Sounds like my Company.

They give us all Blackberries for email.and our other work stuff we need in the field .Then get mad because we have to enter 300 different passwords to access the stuff.So it either takes forever to do it or people just skip it because of it.

Oh and from the past 2 years I don't do anything work related on my own time anymore.My BB turns on at 7:30 and off at 5:30 and even then I ignor it sometimes.

 

[Anewman]

I know some persons that WASTE over an hour every morning going through their Email, and then another hour right b4 quitting time.

While I agree that it maybe considered extreme, just remember that if one "REPLY ALL" goes to 20 other employees and they all reply to that... it can go on forever(just an example). I focus on the "unless absolutely necessary" part and not on the "never" part. And employers always reserve the right to scan email.

 

[Honu]

As someone that averages about 150-200 emails a day at work, I think it sounds great.

We have the rule about no personal emails too.

 

[disneylandkitty]

i agree what would we do with out emails we might have to actually work bummer

 

[Aidensmom]

Hey, my company can make that rule, maybe then I could actually get some real work done.

Our customers are asked to email to a "group" email address for assistance. Unfortunately they don't tend to do that, and I spend more of my day answering "I got your email and will get to your issue as soon as I can" than I do actually getting to the issues!

Sometimes I hate email.

 

[poohandwendy]

My wife just checked her work email ( from home, while not being paid ) and she got an email from one of the higher ups telling all employees to limit their business email. Do not reply to anybody just to say Thank You. Never "reply to all" unless absolutely necessary. Zero personal stuff - email will be scanned and read by management as needed ( BTW, my wife is fairly high management )....

And the reason for this? Well, according to the email ( LOL ) it is because it can waste up to 15 minutes a day of "productive endeavors"....

Seems quite excessive to me.

Sounds like they are seeing alot of slacking and not enough productivity.

Since they are paying everyone to be there, I guess that is their perogative.

I am not sure why you think it is excessive to limit emails to what is necessary and business oriented?

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

Never hit reply all unless you know all the recipients. And believe it or not, the "reply all" will go to BCCs that you can't see. Bad habit to get into.

Never have an assumption of privacy at work. Where I work, part of my job is reading e-mails (hate it). If you could see the stupid things people write in work e-mails. When I do training sessions I remind people that some poor soul is stuck in an office reading e-mails like "what are u doing 2nite?" "I dunno know. u?" "maybe laundry. I need quarters." "yeah I hate laundry. Let's go to the bar." "okay, where?" And this goes on and on and on. I joke that I want to foward these e-mail to bosses and tell them that their workers need more work!!! Oh and some items - completely inappropriate!

I'm guilty of this of replying "thanks" sometimes. I try not to because alot of people get annoyed by this. My mentor specifically tells his staff not to reply with thanks. Unless he hears from you otherwise you are pleased with the response.

No personal stuff? Sorry to me that's just plain dopey. We are at the office the majority of our time. As long as it does not start taking our your work day than personal stuff should be permitted (in my opinion) to a degree.

Again, all of this is just my 2 cents. Not sure any of this helped.

 

[Papa Deuce]

Sounds like they are seeing alot of slacking and not enough productivity.

Since they are paying everyone to be there, I guess that is their perogative.

I am not sure why you think it is excessive to limit emails to what is necessary and business oriented?

Well, the not being able to say "thank you" does bother me. And if people like my wife are at home, not being paid, checking email, then I think the company oughtta lighten up. And I know that most of the people who work for my wife read their emails at home, while also not on the clock.

Hmmmn.... I think that the company MORE than gets their 15 minutes of productivity back.

 

[Mono~rail]

Sounds like the company Dh just left.

 

[diznygirl]

Soo how much time will be spent scanning the emails - MORE than 15 minutes????




Sometimes when you need to correct someone's email, it's a good idea to Reply All, so that the bcc's get to see the correction as well!

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I can understand the policy--but it seems mgmt should follow suit .

Hubby's company is HUGE HUGE HUGE--and that is their primary notification for company events and happenings--like the recent company celebration or the upcoming insurance enrollment window. Those who reply all are quick to get embarrassed.

My team was fairly small---but for the most part people knew the importance of when to reply and when not too.

And often times--in writing, in e-mail--is much better to communicate business related items than on a phone call.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I am not sure why you think it is excessive to limit emails to what is necessary and business oriented?

It sounds to me (if I am reading correctly)--that they are even limiting the "business oriented stuff".

"Thanks"--is a good response so that you know someone got your message (I.e. cannot claim they didn't get it)--but there is a feature that as sender, you can include so that you will know when the message was read.

Just sounds to me that they are being super restrictive with legit.

 

[Luv'sTink]

I think it goes back to the times you see people post on the Dis "I only post while I am at work" or "I am at work so I have to make it quick" or "I dont want my boss to catch me on the Dis." People are getting paid to work, be productive.

 

[Hedy]

I know nothing about your wife's company, but I have heard horror stories of people who have co-workers who reply to every "Cookies in the breakroom!" with "YUM!!!!" cc'ed to 150 people. Could this rule be to deter this?

 

[Toby'sFriend]

my experience is that "general" messages like that mean that they are aware of certain people on staff that are severely abusing the company internet access with inappropriate communications and/or surfing.

The put out a general warning like that in hopes that it will stop it. When it doesn't, the next step is that they start disciplining the offenders.

 

[ellyn2000]

There was recently a big stink in Charlotte, NC with a gov't employee "forwarding" a mass e-mail with objectionable subject matter and he was fired. Our office (also a gov't dept.) issued a memo stating no personal e-mail, web surfing or forwarding of joke e-mails. The mass forwarded e-mails bother me the most. Why do you send a co-worker in the next cube an e-mail and expect them to forward to 12 other people just so they can make a "wish" and God will answer that "wish"? Silly. I delete those right away and only use the web on my 15 minute break and this was it.....