FFS, Get a Grip

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This morning I noticed the headline HOSPITALS TRUST: 'SAVE US FROM E-MAIL HELL' outside the newsagents. What could this E-mail Hell be? I wondered. Cyber-stalking? Threats of violence? Er, no:

http://www.thisishull.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=136730&command=displayContent&sourceNode=136541&contentPK=17172809&folderPk=79656&pNodeId=136251

(NB: THIS IS A FRONT-PAGE NEWS STORY, APPARENTLY)

So this is the thread where we list instances of people who really need to get a fucking grip.

― Noodle Vague, Thursday, 26 April 2007 09:12 (eighteen years ago)

SAVE US FROM ~~E-MAIL~~ HULL

― Tom D., Thursday, 26 April 2007 09:14 (eighteen years ago)

I don't understand why companies get so frustrated about the amount of e-mails that get sent. Personal phone calls, yeah, but it's as if e-mails cost money to send, innit?

― the next grozart, Thursday, 26 April 2007 09:18 (eighteen years ago)

GOD this annoys me. JUST DELETE THEM.

― Groke, Thursday, 26 April 2007 09:22 (eighteen years ago)

Surely they get annoyed because of the enormous amount of time wastage?

― Matt DC, Thursday, 26 April 2007 09:23 (eighteen years ago)

I send work related emails all day long - I consider it a sort of paper trail to cover my ass if things go wrong. If Ive had a phonecall I cant prove what went down but I can with an email.

― Trayce, Thursday, 26 April 2007 09:23 (eighteen years ago)

He said the trust should consider having e-mail-free days, when staff would have to resort to the more traditional method of communication - talking to one another.

NO

However, since e-mail came along, nobody speaks to one another anymore

IT'S CALLED PROGRESS

― lex pretend, Thursday, 26 April 2007 09:26 (eighteen years ago)

It's all electricity's fault.

― StanM, Thursday, 26 April 2007 09:27 (eighteen years ago)

xxxpost

Annoyed, yes, quite possibly. On what planet does "this is annoying and wasteful" become "SAVE US FROM E-MAIL HELL. HEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!" ?

― Noodle Vague, Thursday, 26 April 2007 09:27 (eighteen years ago)

when you get the generic "funny email" usually consisting of a punchline like "she's good for the worms" or some such.

― Mark G, Thursday, 26 April 2007 09:29 (eighteen years ago)

the answer? get 1 X PORTAL!

all info that needs to be communicated to all staff goes via the portal, reserving email for info between individual members of staff and ppl outside the organization.

― Grandpont Genie, Thursday, 26 April 2007 09:29 (eighteen years ago)

I hate the way it becomes all about OH THE HUMANITY losing valuable face to face time etc etc - it's justifying people's incompetence at using email with this feeble quasi moral argument.

― Groke, Thursday, 26 April 2007 09:30 (eighteen years ago)

I havent even clicked on the article because I know it is bollocks, as I do with half the emails I get. This is because I have the mental capability to QUICKLY DECIDE IF I NEED TO READ SOMETHING*, unlike people in 'email hell' who seem to live in some kind of Pavlov's Dog world of perpetual information lure and disappointment.

*obviously this does not apply to ILX threads :(

― Groke, Thursday, 26 April 2007 09:32 (eighteen years ago)

i bet the people who complain about email are the same people who complain about endless face-to-face meetings stopping them from doing their job, too

― lex pretend, Thursday, 26 April 2007 09:34 (eighteen years ago)

I might have to buy a Hull Daily Mail today, my grandchildren will want to know about the day that e-mail Hell was finally conquered.

― Noodle Vague, Thursday, 26 April 2007 09:34 (eighteen years ago)

To be fair lex, 95% of work meetings are a total waste of everybody's time.

― Noodle Vague, Thursday, 26 April 2007 09:35 (eighteen years ago)

and i do still talk to people obv! i talk to people OUTSIDE WORK*.

*ok sometimes not, like when i was on the singles review panel for plan b - this is done on msn, though we all sit in the same room to listen to the cds, so obv we just type our thoughts away and don't talk while reviewing. then the 4 of us suddenly realised we'd actually finished the pile of singles and for 20 minutes had been sitting in silence, our backs to each other, making msn wisecracks at each other. so we went down the pub.

xp nv i agree that meetings are a waste of time

― lex pretend, Thursday, 26 April 2007 09:37 (eighteen years ago)

the rule I apply WRT meetings is: am I better informed when I come out than when I go in? if the answer is no, then the meeting has been a waste of time.

― Grandpont Genie, Thursday, 26 April 2007 09:37 (eighteen years ago)

The rule I apply is: have I leaned across the table and tried to punch somebody in the face?

― Noodle Vague, Thursday, 26 April 2007 09:39 (eighteen years ago)

Lex OTM, this too:

I hate the way it becomes all about OH THE HUMANITY losing valuable face to face time etc etc - it's justifying people's incompetence at using email with this feeble quasi moral argument.

It's not as if the workplace has ever encouraged face-to-face talking anyway is it?

― the next grozart, Thursday, 26 April 2007 09:39 (eighteen years ago)

I used to work in an office where nobody talked to one another and just sat there bitching about each other over email (and in one case A BLOG). It was shit, calling someone a twat to their face is so much more satisfying.

― Matt DC, Thursday, 26 April 2007 09:42 (eighteen years ago)

Then again I did regularly email someone sitting opposite me with the message 'do you want a cup of tea', to which they would reply 'yes', which is sort of taking things to extremes.

― Matt DC, Thursday, 26 April 2007 09:43 (eighteen years ago)

Reading emails only takes up all your time if you're the kind of person whose mouth moves when you're reading them...

― braveclub, Thursday, 26 April 2007 09:43 (eighteen years ago)

Open-plan offices were designed to save money and also as a subliminal reminder to workforces that they are only ever two pay cheques away from the workhouse.

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 26 April 2007 09:45 (eighteen years ago)

Then again I did regularly email someone sitting opposite me with the message 'do you want a cup of tea', to which they would reply 'yes', which is sort of taking things to extremes.

i dunno it's no worse than talking on msn to my housemates when i was a student because we were all too lazy to move.

― lex pretend, Thursday, 26 April 2007 09:45 (eighteen years ago)

Also I think yr media preference will vary depending on whether you are the person asking someone to do something or the person being asked. In the latter case "talking to each other" generally means "standing by your desk looking like an angry Droopy until you do their work".

― Groke, Thursday, 26 April 2007 09:47 (eighteen years ago)

I think that's classic though, Matt DC.

― the next grozart, Thursday, 26 April 2007 09:49 (eighteen years ago)

i dunno it's no worse than talking on msn to my housemates when i was a student because we were all too lazy to move.

This is SO LAME.

― Matt DC, Thursday, 26 April 2007 09:54 (eighteen years ago)

depends how much use is made of emoticons.

― Grandpont Genie, Thursday, 26 April 2007 09:56 (eighteen years ago)

open plan offices are great. i love to be able to see the person i am e-mailing/phoning up.

― blueski, Thursday, 26 April 2007 09:57 (eighteen years ago)

A friend of my brother's once phoned his housemate to ask her to change the channel.

― braveclub, Thursday, 26 April 2007 09:58 (eighteen years ago)

Tsk, students.

― Noodle Vague, Thursday, 26 April 2007 09:59 (eighteen years ago)

16,500 emails sent AND received, 7,000 employees - so basically they're getting their knickers in a twist when on average each work sends ONE POINT TWO emails per day. Amazing.

― Mark C, Thursday, 26 April 2007 10:00 (eighteen years ago)

This is SO LAME.

the best was when this one girl we hated moved out - there had been a big showdown two days previously (not involving me directly) when she'd belatedly realised how much we all hated her, and we'd avoided her in that time - we were all too terrified to leave our rooms while she banged around packing her stuff up so the 4 of us locked ourselves in and had a massive msn bitching session while she stormed around. and when she'd finally left we had a big party.

― lex pretend, Thursday, 26 April 2007 10:02 (eighteen years ago)

haha, that's kind of super-lame, but awesome at the same time.

― Pashmina, Thursday, 26 April 2007 10:03 (eighteen years ago)

I HOPE YOU DIDN'T DISTRESS YOUR NEIGHBOURS

― Noodle Vague, Thursday, 26 April 2007 10:04 (eighteen years ago)

What, by MSNing too loudly?

― Matt DC, Thursday, 26 April 2007 10:05 (eighteen years ago)

You can hear the typing thru the party-wall.

― Noodle Vague, Thursday, 26 April 2007 10:06 (eighteen years ago)

I used to work in an office where nobody talked to one another and just sat there bitching about each other over email (and in one case A BLOG).

Haw, once this bitchy group of girls in my team were doing this over msn, until one of them managed to acidentally msg the girl being bitched about with something like "yeah stuck up cow thinks she's too busy to do any work"

Oh god, the team rift totally went krakatoa after that incident.

― Trayce, Thursday, 26 April 2007 10:23 (eighteen years ago)

i dunno it's no worse than talking on msn to my housemates when i was a student because we were all too lazy to move.

This is SO LAME.

beats the time a housemate called from the landline phone in his room to the landline in the downstairs hallway to ask if someone would make and bring up a cup of tea.

― Alan, Thursday, 26 April 2007 10:37 (eighteen years ago)

Who actually uses MSN for work-related purposes by the way? I sometimes see people mentioning doing this, but I have never EVER done this, and can't even imagine it to be honest!

― Sarah, Thursday, 26 April 2007 10:46 (eighteen years ago)

I actually had to get a GoogleTalk account when I started here, purely for work-related purposes. Don't use it that often apart from sending URLs to each other or asking people upstairs if they're going to the pub at lunchtime though.

― Colonel Poo, Thursday, 26 April 2007 10:48 (eighteen years ago)

i have talked to my boss a few times via MSN. this after i stoppped using MSN outside work (2-3 years or so ago now).

― blueski, Thursday, 26 April 2007 10:54 (eighteen years ago)

We use sky chat and phone every day. We've got one office in London and one in zagreb and it saves time and money.

― Ed, Thursday, 26 April 2007 10:55 (eighteen years ago)

sky = skype

― Ed, Thursday, 26 April 2007 10:55 (eighteen years ago)

I have used MSN for work purposes with our clients in Iraq and Dubai. It was, I hate to say it, easier than a phone conversation.

― Trayce, Thursday, 26 April 2007 10:56 (eighteen years ago)

our mac ppl use instant messages within the company quite a lot. to send files, but also for support.

bonus. i have a couple of deaf users who it's [interrupted to respond to an iChat from a user in cheltenham...] some easier to support that way (my failing, as my understanding of signing is, er, somewhat limited)

plus my boss is in the US right now and we keep in touch more by iChat than e-mail. we decided to be v flash and do a video conference yesterday!

― Alan, Thursday, 26 April 2007 11:00 (eighteen years ago)

never used skype.

― Alan, Thursday, 26 April 2007 11:01 (eighteen years ago)

We use Skype between campuses quite a bit, video phoning. Peopel think they can tell I am lying.

― Pete, Thursday, 26 April 2007 11:05 (eighteen years ago)

at home working through a VPN it's also handy

― Alan, Thursday, 26 April 2007 11:15 (eighteen years ago)

The article noodle links to, how many times have I read it before? "email flood is wasting office time/killing irl conversation on offices" (sub editor please expand to 500 words by this afternoon) it's a load of old cobblers.

What would rock in an office environment would be if someone made you laugh, print out a smiley face emoticon on 72pt text on a sheet of a4 paper, and hand it to them.

― Pashmina, Thursday, 26 April 2007 12:11 (eighteen years ago)

that hospital has no idea about volume of email. At my place we use it like it was IM, sending one-liners back and forth endlessly.

― stet, Thursday, 26 April 2007 13:05 (eighteen years ago)

What would rock in an office environment would be if someone made you laugh, print out a smiley face emoticon on 72pt text on a sheet of a4 paper, and hand it to them.

I swear to god I will do this tomorrow and report back.

― Trayce, Thursday, 26 April 2007 13:35 (eighteen years ago)

xpost to stet: ah, the glory days of announce user. fuck, i wish i was at work so i could post that one of yours that i kept :)

This is because I have the mental capability to QUICKLY DECIDE IF I NEED TO READ SOMETHING

ding ding ding. the "story" here is surely: what kind of senior manager can't quickly differentiate between must-read e-mails and shite from tuggers saying: "LOOK AT TEH FUNNEEEEEES"?

― grimly fiendish, Thursday, 26 April 2007 14:02 (eighteen years ago)

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