Imagine being greeted at the door by the President of your company next Friday and being reminded, “Remember, today is No E-mail Day.”  Sara Roberts, president of Golden Consulting in San Francisco does just that.  On Fridays, employees use the phone, or make personal visits when they want to communicate.  It’s Roberts’ way of being certain that the company’s interpersonal business relationships don’t get degraded to the point that people cease to communicate with one another.

It’s difficult to build rapport and effective business relationships without face-to-face communication.  Firms are beginning to recognize the value of encouraging “old-fashioned” phone calls and office visits, and are training employees to limit e-mail communication to the transmission and confirmation of simple information.  There are several reasons: 

1. The casual ease of using e-mail tends to make people less inhibited about what they say.  For this reason, e-mail is more prone to create office conflict. 
2. Employees and clients value face-to-face communication.  Employees like to be “noticed” by their colleagues.  Positive feedback, congratulations on a job well done, or expressions of concern just pack a better punch when delivered in person.   Supervisors who combine e-mail, instant messaging, and regular face-to-face encounters to communicate with others report stronger working relationships than those who rely on e-mail or IM alone. 
3. Communicating detailed or lengthy information via e-mail is a time-waster, since it takes more time to explain, clarify, and edit, than it would to pick up the phone for a verbal explanation, or to walk to a co-worker’s office and draw a diagram.
4. Using e-mail to communicate sensitive information poses legal risks to companies who may be required by law to disclose the contents of even “casual” e-mail conversation in order to settle legal disputes. 

If your employee handbook does not contain clear e-mail rules, you might consider making a revision.  As you review company e-mail policies, scrutinize the contents of your own inbox to see whether or not e-mail is being used appropriately within your company.  If not, a “No E-mail Friday” might be just the ticket to open the lines of communication again. 

Source:  Wellner, Alison Stein.  “Lost in Translation.”  INC. Magazine.  September 2005, 37.