It was almost three decades ago that we first experienced the blessings of electronic mailing. After a while we got used to it, moreover, we got addicted to it. We reduced the number of our faxes and snail mails to a mandatory level, and we believed that everything would be better, faster, and easier. However, it doesn’t seem like that today…
Back then we didn’t expect that in 2018 mankind would send 187 million emails per minute and 25,000 GIFs in Messenger. Nor did we expect that nearly half a million tweets would be tweeted, while one million users log into their Facebook accounts and five times as many YouTube video views would be counted in the same time period – and this does not stop at all.
Thirty years ago, we didn’t even expect to receive a Skype call while writing a letter or an urgent mail during a videoconference. Communication has become complex, and so has IT. The effect of these is unpredictable and has an enormous impact on business and corporate processes.
There is a need for different manpower with new skills and pace, because unusual problems may occur during the day. It is well recommended to start our day by looking at the spam folder, but it’s not enough.
Meanwhile, new platforms have emerged, and e-mails have become multifunctional. For example, the inbox has become a tool for prioritization. The same is served by the auto-preview function, which is why we usually write and summarize the most important points in the first two lines of our email. We can no longer handle everything according to the classic triple rule – replay, forward, delete.
Due to IT uncertainties, many colleagues ask whether the recipient had seen or received the email.
Often the send process of the email stops, not appearing as it is sent – being one of the many oddities that comes with technology.
It’s no coincidence that receiving more and more emails, checking our mailboxes (not for monitoring our work, but rather our mailboxes), spending an increased amount of time reading emails as well as receiving useless emails, became a regular topic. Senders of these spam emails often fool us to unsubscribe, but then they target repeatedly, and shoot…
A bad signal is an overflowing mailbox, or if the amount of internal mails reaches or exceeds mailing with external partners. In these cases, it might be wise to switch to chat or other platforms. If a manager does not keep this in mind, he may wake up one day and notice that the subordinates have done this themselves, because they would not want to complicate their own lives.
Time is the most tragic component of the balance. If it takes minutes to upload an attachment, this time will appear as a serious loss at the end of the day, in fact, at the end of the month, multiplied every time.
Although there are different folders, drives, links to individual company departments to optimize this situation, if any IT snags occur (and you always have one), you can forget it.
Inappropriate use of email directly undermines efficiency, but unfortunately it is not totally clear what is the most appropriate solution – the old routine may be misleading. It’s important not to optimize for the channel, but for processes, tasks and businesses!
