Commentary by management consultant Michael Wade on Leadership, Ethics, Management, and Life
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Reply All?
Writing at the CSO site, Michael Overly wonders about the claim that hitting the "reply all" button costs the U.S. around $650 billion in lost productivity.
2 comments:
Anonymous
said...
As the saying goes, there are lies, damn lies, and statistics! As far as "billions" in wasted productivity - my own opinion is that email itself is overused as a tool to get or pass information when a quick phone call would do. There are usually far too many names in the "cc" box - and many times that function is used to CYA or express power over the original recipient ("all these poeple are now seeing my comments to you"). And many of those people feel complelled to respond. There are also some real inherent dangers in combination of the "Reply All" button and the "cc" box. Sometimes an unintended recipient is buried in the "cc" list - such as a client!
2 comments:
As the saying goes, there are lies, damn lies, and statistics!
As far as "billions" in wasted productivity - my own opinion is that email itself is overused as a tool to get or pass information when a quick phone call would do.
There are usually far too many names in the "cc" box - and many times that function is used to CYA or express power over the original recipient ("all these poeple are now seeing my comments to you").
And many of those people feel complelled to respond.
There are also some real inherent dangers in combination of the "Reply All" button and the "cc" box. Sometimes an unintended recipient is buried in the "cc" list - such as a client!
Jeff,
I agree.
"Reply All" is often used as a CYA device and email itself can be a terrible way to communicate, especially if the topic is a sensitive one.
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