Posted on 02/01/2025 5:59:24 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
“It would be solved by using proper communication.”
This is dead-on when it comes to email.
To be fair, a sender can’t know everything the recipient will need to know in order to provide a response. But a HUGE amount of wasted time is the result of downright laziness on the part of the sender.
They will send emails inquiring about this ticket, that request, etc., but not bother to include the reference in the email (it’s usually pulled up on their screen). Or they will send blurry screenshots, forcing the reader to re-key a
lot of information.
Well said.
“What we’re finding is that for all the technology in the world, nothing is faster than the speed of human interaction,” wrote Dell, claiming that a “thirty second conversation can replace an email back-and-forth that goes on for hours or even days.”
Some white collar employees think they’re better than the rest of us. I don’t believe for a second they get more done at home.
I don’t get pressed on it. I am not easily replaced — if at all.
I will use next Tuesday as a perfect example of why this works. I have an 8:30AM meeting in Philadelphia, a 10:00AM meeting in Washington DC, a 1:30PM meeting in Columbus (Ohio), and a 5:00PM meeting that is being hosted by another office of this client at 2:00PM Pacific Time in Seattle.
If these meetings were scheduled on this date in 2020, I’d only be attending one of them.
And doing them from my home office — which is bigger and better equipped than the offices of the CEOs of any of my clients — makes it easier than doing it anywhere else.
We have tools like Teams and Slack.One of my biggest pet peeves is that people don’t give the reason for as ticket. Knowing the reason is the best way to decide what fields are affected or should be reported. When we have to go back to the requester, they are annoyed.
Remote work has become “You are always in the office”. It’s one of the reasons I retired. I went back because I am at a hard 20 hours a week. They cannot violate that. It’s a state law because I have a state pension.
I have been called into a meeting on Monday to discuss why I didn’t do something. The reason was “I ran out of hours”.
I worked in many of project war room and it’s the best way to get things done quickly and with minimal fuss.
As an old fart that was recently pushed out of the working world, emails and chats have destroyed productivity. Decisions get drawn out over the entire day if not longer. Back in the day you would use the phone and have your answer. With email, this gets prolonged as the email chain goes back and forth with stupid questions and roadblocks that consume hours of time waiting for responses. Emails also encourage stupid questions that, if the sender had to pick up a phone, they would never ask.
In my past it was not unusual to have 150-200 email chains a day. This alone creates an environment of playing office vs doing your job. I would have to work with the younger folks and teach them how to manage this world. When they first start the job, at the end of the day, they would say they were extremely busy all day, yet they had not completed their actual work. They were simply answering their emails.
But I am just a grumpy old man.
Mr Dell CEO is trying to get people to return to the office, not end email. Having a decades long career I have lived through this evolution. The value of personal interaction adds to business’ innovation, productivity, and culture cannot be overstated. Too many people hide behind email and IM, and since they never met the people with whom they are supposed to be working, it de-personalizes the necessary human relationship. When it is geographically impossible to “walk to your colleague’s office”, picking up the phone is a lot more efficient than typing out an email. And it really helps to have met and spent time with your colleagues in person somewhere along the way. But travel is now only for the big wigs.
I won’t blame workers for the problem that Mr Dell is trying to solve in his own company. His management created this culture, not really managing how their teams can effectively work with one another. His company’s, his industry’s products have played a key part in this behavioral, cultural phenomenon. Glad he recognizes his company needs to change.
We know that from time to time there are some personal and ad hominem attacks on FR. I’ve been recipient of a few, and hopefully I have not done any, though maybe a few times my writing may have been interpreted that way though it was not intended. If we all were able to meet in person, I would wager that there would be almost no caustic, vituperative or insulting attacks. Mr Dell needs sees a problem and I am sure he does more human interaction than typing emails.
Exactly true!
"So, when do you think that they can start on that important project? It's urgent! She said they need it done before that other project finishes. If you have any questions, just ask him, or the new guy. I'm leaving the office right now and won't be back until both projects are scheduled for completion. Oh, and: You are a member of this project team, aren't you?
Regards,
Hey grumpy old man, ... guess I am one too! LOL
See my post directly below yours. Picking up the phone in many cases beats (more efficient) that email many times. Email chains and distribution lists. But today there are many people who won a trophy for mediocrity so they would not be left out by their helicopter parents and teachers and professors ... they need some interpersonal skills lessons, or they’ll eventually learn the way of the world.
Not necessarily.
"Attached please find my list of the twelve main issues I have identified with the new HCM1007A - incl. 62 sub-issues. You and your team are responsible for checking points 6a, 6b, 6d, 8e, and 9b. Please confer with the Production Dept. (Mr. Wilfred Jones) on point 8e. I am also including document no. 618-388.pdf as a courtesy. You are expected to have completed the review and submitted your recommendations for mitigation by 18:30 on Friday, Sept. 23. Failure to do so will result in your immediate termination."
Regards,
LOL ...
“...Picking up the phone in many cases beats email ...” Emphasizing “many cases”.
Definitely not the one you provided. Sounds like the recipient might be a performance problem and that text is written with the help of HR are laying the groundwork to fire his @ss.
Regards,
“””Hey grumpy old man, ... guess I am one too! LOL”””
Count me in as a member of the select group.
Picking up the phone and having a back and forth conversation was the SOP.
any jobs that can be effectively done remotely are jobs AI will do in the future.
and if not AI... cheap 3rd world labor (ie: H1B)
I was not in HR, but rather Technical Writing. And, yes: That's a typical example of the e-mails I used to send when initiating a process.
The threat about "immediate termination" was a joke I would sometimes include to make sure that the recipient had read until the end.
Spending ten minutes writing a really exhaustive e-mail including detailed info can save hours of subsequent labor.
But if I were instead replying to an e-mail some clown had sent to me, it might have gone something like this:
Hi, Fred! You sent me an e-mail asking me to test the "old Centra controller" - I assume you were referring to the HCM line - and provide a fault-report, but failed to specify which of the 16 models currently still in production you meant. We manufacture only three of those models at our plant; the other 13 models are produced in Japan, exclusively for the Far Eastern market, and operate at a different voltage; our testing equipment is not designed to test such devices. Finally, I am a Technical Writer, and not a Fault-Tester, so I strongly suggest that you re-direct your request to the proper colleagues.
Regards,
The solution is don't use email--use Skype/Teams/another messaging product. Those are faster than having to get up from your desk and walking around.
Or just use your phone.
This smells like a control freak looking for an excuse, and doesn't want to use the whole "We are paying for office space so we're gonna use it" reason--which is a valid reason.
And, generally, 1/10th the quality.
I don’t buy that argument. 3W has already taken our jobs for decades, and AI will take some more, regardless of where they’re performed. Many corporate heads see it as beating the troubles with American workers — lawsuits over terminations, unemployment and other costs, EEOC regulations, etc.
Don’t worry, I do not support 3W and AI taking our jobs, I only understand why some folks would prefer those options.
Until bosses find more foolproof ways of monitoring WFH, some of them will prefer RTO.
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