Eliminating Employees' Ability To Email

Email Communications

Although Apple is a big company that's at the forefront of technological advances, it would seem there's one technical advance that heads of other companies are beginning to wish had never been made available to their employees-email.

Email has become such a time waster and producer of problems between employees that many companies no longer consider it an appropriate way to communicate and are sharply curbing, or even eliminating, their employees' ability to use it.

Unintended Messages

HR Magazine, published by the Society for Human Resource Management, recently asked experts whether or not they felt small businesses are beginning to rely too much on computers.

The response was loud and clear-"YES!"

One of the experts, Herb Greenberg, CEO and president of Caliper (and HR consulting firm in New Jersey), said, "I want to outlaw [email] from my company.

Email is a guarantee that unintended messages will be disseminated.

Misinterpretations

I've seen people not talk to each other, turf wars break out, and people quit their jobs as a result of emails."

Greenberg isn't the only one to feel that way.

Most of the communication experts that HR Magazine spoke with agreed that emails are misinterpretations waiting to happen.

Restricting Email

As a result, lots of companies are starting to restrict email in the workplace.

Some allow only certain employees to send messages to the entire staff and others allow only certain types of messages to be sent.

For example, no emails with bad news, counselling, negotiations, or coaching may be sent.

There's no doubt that email has its place in the world and can be an efficient means of communication, but it certainly does take the personal touch out of employee interactions-a trend that's all too common today.

Job Well Done

To put the personal touch back into employee relations, I suggest the liberal use of flowers.

Flowers are an excellent way for superiors to let their employees know how much the work they do is appreciated.

They can say, "thanks for a job well done," "happy employment anniversary," or "congratulations on your promotion."

A gift of flowers can boost morale and, what's more, a recent study conducted at A&M University showed that employees who are exposed to flowers in the workplace produce more creative solutions than those who work in buildings where there are no flowers.

So, while Apple may be pioneering advances in the technological industry, those of us in the floral industry will just stick to keeping things personal with flowers!

This article was contributed by Wesley Berry