Ditching E-Mail

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I had initially resisted installing the company approved chat client, until I caved into the badgering of younger coworkers. Today, while working from home, I decided to take the complete plunge and force all of my communications to be initiated via the chat client, by 'unplugging' myself from e-mail. I went so far as to block off my public Outlook calendar with an Out-of-office meeting titled "Working from home – Contact me via the chat tool" and set up a similar Out-of-Office message.

Surprisingly, or not so surprisingly, I completed more work, in a shorter period of time, than I had expected. The chat conversations that I did hold were extremely productive and faster than using traditional e-mail. (I do find it interesting that all of my coworkers have phones, but often times they like to send e-mail/chat requests vs. calling each other.) Furthermore, chat requests that I initiated are displayed as pop-ups on my coworker's desktops which catches their attention faster than an e-mail sitting in their inbox. It is easy to ignore an e-mail whereas it is not so simple to ignore a flashing popup box.

By forcing conversations to be initiated via the chat tool, I ended up using e-mail for its true purpose – electronic mail – and not as a chat-client. Additionally, the chat tool allows for faster back-and-forth and more interactive conversations as compared to what passing e-mail messages can achieve. (Again, my comment about the phone call applies – Why don't people like to use their voice to communicate anymore?) An interesting by-product was that I felt that I was actually engaging in real conversations while chatting - vs. sending e-mails back and forth – and did not feel as disconnected from my coworkers, even though I was offsite (in my home).

Why was the Chat tool installed in the first place?
After reading an article for class, I wonder if the desire to reduce the volume of e-mail was one of the driving purposes for the company to install the chat client. I am sure the cost to send and store an e-mail message is more expensive than the cost to send chat messages back and forth. Another possibility could be that it reduces the need for coworkers to make long distance calls to coworkers in out-of-state offices. (Although given how I have commented on the lack of desire to pick up the phone, I wonder how much money is spent for long distance company wide phone calls.) A third consideration is that the company had banned AOL's IM tool, but most people had found alternative workarounds, such as using Google Chat or other such tools. Perhaps by offering a company supported chatting tool, the company could gain more control over the IM tools that were used on the network.

Regardless of why the tool is available, I have become a complete convert and hope that other coworkers embrace the technology.