Is your inbox flooded with useless, one-line emails from co-workers and list serves? Do you spend a good portion of your day filtering through messages, deeming their importance? What would life be like if you never had to deal with work emails?
One company might have the right idea as it introduces a “zero email” policy. Ironically, that company is Atos, one of the largest IT companies, employing 80,000 people around the world.
According to the Daily Mail, the company will phase out emails over the next year and a half to cut down on wasted time since, Atos says, 90 percent of emails are just that — a waste of time.
“It is not right that some of our fellow employees spend hours in the evening dealing with their e-mails,” said Thierry Breton, CEO of Atos.
Breton said for every 200 emails an employee at his company receives, only 20 of them turn out to be of any importance. That means people are sifting through a whole lot of chain letters, lunch orders and accidental reply-all’s.
Instead, Breton is calling on his employees to pick up the phone to communicate, use messaging interfaces like Facebook chat or (gasp!) speak face to face.
“If people want to talk to me, they can come and visit me, call or send me a text message,” said Breton. “Emails cannot replace the spoken word.”
Would you want your company to abolish emails?
