Email is a great tool for everyone to use. The size of the world has shrunk, well not literally but figuratively speaking. Correspondence which use to take days, even weeks, to reach a person on the other side of the world can now reach person in mere seconds. It is also much easier to send letters letting the family know what you have been up to, even Uncle Joe who you only met once at an obscure cousins wedding who only invited you to the wedding because they saw your name on Facebook and wanted another gift. You only have to type the letter and hit send, no printing using the ink on my printer which hasn't worked in months and no postage needed. All that we need now is a working email address before hitting send. Okay, it really takes a little more work, like knowing what you are going to write about, but nothing you weren't doing before.
Now we must ask ourselves, is everything email allows us to do always that great? We have all heard arguments that people will become so reliant on email and social media that we will forget how to actually dial a phone and talk to someone. With smartphones it is much easier to forget how to dial since we don't actually see the numbers we must dial to talk to a person. Email and social media are at our fingertips without even turning on a computer, unless you consider your phone a computer which has more power than the Apple IIGS we bought when I was a kid.
In addition to never talking to people, I see another issue that has to do with the workplace. It is easy to respond to an email, maybe it will take five minutes for an easy question which you know the answer right off hand. The issue comes when you see the email and decide NOT to answer. This email may become lost in the cyper-world of email because you didn't respond right away, or perhaps the email was deliberately not responded to in an effort to leave a "paper" trail.
I like to give people the benefit of the doubt and think that maybe they just missed the email or called because it is quicker. Yes, calling is quicker and take perhaps one minute instead of 10 emails back and forth, but there are cases when having the paper trail is appropriate. When do you decide that a person is avoiding the paper trail? That is a good question, but I think it can be answered when the person NEVER sends an email and always calls.
Say, hypothetically speaking, a manager never answers an email and will only call the employee with answers to emails. A new questions arises in which there was an HR issue and a manager needs to respond and provide proof that an agreement was made. It would make sense to have the "paper" trail to prove the agreement, should any questions arise. HR calls and says what the agreement is, but that your manager will be in charge of keeping track and making sure the agreement is executed. Well, the hypothetical person then emails the manager, on three different occasions, and never receives a response, not even a phone call this time. There comes another issue with email, phone call avoidance because a hypothetical email was sent and the manager now knows what the employee is calling about. No response to email and no answering the phone.
So, now there is no proof of the agreement, aside from the initial call from HR, and no "paper" trail. The employee sending the hypothetical email has proof that the emails were sent, but how will this hold up when stating that an agreement was reached? That will become the test. A new question, is this really an issue with email or is this an issue with the manager?
Now we must ask ourselves, is everything email allows us to do always that great? We have all heard arguments that people will become so reliant on email and social media that we will forget how to actually dial a phone and talk to someone. With smartphones it is much easier to forget how to dial since we don't actually see the numbers we must dial to talk to a person. Email and social media are at our fingertips without even turning on a computer, unless you consider your phone a computer which has more power than the Apple IIGS we bought when I was a kid.
In addition to never talking to people, I see another issue that has to do with the workplace. It is easy to respond to an email, maybe it will take five minutes for an easy question which you know the answer right off hand. The issue comes when you see the email and decide NOT to answer. This email may become lost in the cyper-world of email because you didn't respond right away, or perhaps the email was deliberately not responded to in an effort to leave a "paper" trail.
I like to give people the benefit of the doubt and think that maybe they just missed the email or called because it is quicker. Yes, calling is quicker and take perhaps one minute instead of 10 emails back and forth, but there are cases when having the paper trail is appropriate. When do you decide that a person is avoiding the paper trail? That is a good question, but I think it can be answered when the person NEVER sends an email and always calls.
Say, hypothetically speaking, a manager never answers an email and will only call the employee with answers to emails. A new questions arises in which there was an HR issue and a manager needs to respond and provide proof that an agreement was made. It would make sense to have the "paper" trail to prove the agreement, should any questions arise. HR calls and says what the agreement is, but that your manager will be in charge of keeping track and making sure the agreement is executed. Well, the hypothetical person then emails the manager, on three different occasions, and never receives a response, not even a phone call this time. There comes another issue with email, phone call avoidance because a hypothetical email was sent and the manager now knows what the employee is calling about. No response to email and no answering the phone.
So, now there is no proof of the agreement, aside from the initial call from HR, and no "paper" trail. The employee sending the hypothetical email has proof that the emails were sent, but how will this hold up when stating that an agreement was reached? That will become the test. A new question, is this really an issue with email or is this an issue with the manager?
