Banning E-Mail at Work?

Most of us have, at best, a love-hate relationship with email. It's not just the spam, but the endless stream of messages and reply-alls that at least require reading, if not always follow-up.

This week, CEO Thierry Breton of French tech company Atos went with the nuclear option in the email battle, announcing that his firm would ban internal email within 18 months. After that, it'll be all instant messaging for the company's 74,000 employees.

At our sister publication The Atlantic, Derek Thompson writes: "If we agree that the role of work email is to keep workers connected to their work, then there are two arguments against it. The first is that email does its job poorly: it's not the best way to keep people connected and productive. The second is that it does its job too well: it keeps people so connected that it winds up hurting productivity."

But, he notes, "Facebook messaging and Gchats can be as much of a time-suck as email. It's not about the technology. It's about the users."

Judging from the amount of email that flows into the Government Executive offices from federal agencies every day, I can't see government giving up email any time soon. After all, it wasn't that long ago that managers and executives were being told they had to get comfortable with e-mail in addition to phone calls and faxes. Asking them to switch to online chatting at this point may be a bridge too far.

(Photo by flickr user dampeebe)