What would you do if your company killed off email for internal communication?

by jeffhilimire on December 5, 2011

Here’s a tech company that is looking to completely eradicate his company of using email for internal communication, instead opting for instant messaging and a “Facebook-style” interface. I kinda thought it was going to say he wanted more face-to-face meetings of his employees, but to each his own I guess.

Oh yeah, and they have 74,000 employees. This is not a small company.

We do tend to over use email, don't we?

My question is, what would you do if your company decided to get rid of email entirely for internal communication?

Would you quit? Embrace it?

Would it be a breath of fresh air or a sign of poor leadership?

 

Share

Related Posts

  1. 12 characteristics of a great place to work
  2. My view on the future of email
  3. Go small or go home
  • http://twitter.com/leesnewton Lee Newton

    I think that would be fantastic. Getting 50+ emails in a day sucks, a shorter, simpler messaging system would rock. 

  • http://twitter.com/ITkimbannerman Kim Martin Bannerman

    I dream of a day when a collaboration platform becomes the standard for business communication. Grouping subjects, projects, ideas, external client feedback by keywords and timelines. All in a dashboard that doesn’t make your head hurt.

    Now, someone go make this happen!

    FYI-My personal email is at over 1400 unread emails. It’s out of control.

  • http://www.jeffhilimire.com Jeff Hilimire

    Ha, I think you just described what Google Wave was supposed to be ;)

  • Caroline Morrow

    I think it’s not a great idea, mostly because it’s helpful to have the track record of email for CYA and general reference.  You don’t get that with face-to-face or phone calls, though some chat clients do create logs.

  • http://www.vladgorenshteyn.com Vlad Gorenshteyn

    If you have to CYA…you may need to reconsider who you work for. See Jeff’s post: 
    http://jeffhilimire.com/2011/09/12-characteristics-of-a-great-place-to-work/

  • http://www.vladgorenshteyn.com Vlad Gorenshteyn

    I like the idea of eliminating email, but I think it’s cutting off the head for the headache…
    especially for certain verticals. Not to mention that an internal change wouldn’t jive with clients and vendors.

    A lot of companies like Southern Co. have actually implemented what you’re suggesting here, however as a supplement not a replacement to email.

    I would agree that people abuse email way too much. This is because the barrier to entry for emailing is so low.

    Instead of eliminating email, I would suggest educating employees about email
    etiquette (when it’s necessary to send email vs. when a phone call or face·to·face is
    more appropriate) as a way to be a more efficient and productive individual—reducing the frustration inherent to email communication.

    Also, (and this may already exist), there is a clear need  for an outlook plugin that provides automatic feedback to senders, especially if they abuse email … some sort of a visual way for senders to see that they may be “in the red” for the day, week, or month.

    On the recipient side, there should be a meter that encourages the user to delete and file
    email’ … sort of an inbox zero gauge … gamification if you will.

    p.s. this is a true story that happened just now: as I was writing this post a client decided to push a 30mb video attachment despite very clear instructions to use dropbox, my ftp server, or yousendit. What happened: the size of the attachment crashed my outlook and my browser. Had I not pressed print screen + had OCR capabilities, I would have had to rewrite this from memory. Bless their hearts. Case. in. point.

    –my two cents

    if you’re frustrated about organizing your email especially after vacation, read this post: http://www.brainwads.net/drewhawkins/2011/08/how-to-catch-up-after-time-off/

Previous post:

Next post: