Corporate email: Too much of too much
An abundance of email was stressing people out before the pandemic; now the overload is even worse. Here’s how to strike a healthier balance.
Corporate communicators sent 72% more emails in 2020 than they did in 2019, according to a new study by PoliteMail.
While the company says email was a “corporate success story” last year, the significant jump in email content may actually have had a detrimental effect on employees, says Kristin Graham, a former Amazon communications executive now working as a culture and employee engagement consultant at Ragan Consulting Group.
“We have been getting too much email for years, because we have to read them,” Graham says. “It’s like having to endure PowerPoints in meetings. Emails have become a part of our corporate experience, not necessarily our preference in the corporate experience. And that was the dynamic before the world went uber digital.”
Inbox recovery
Several studies over the years have documented the ill effects of email overload. According to McKinsey research, the average employee spends 28% of the work week reading and answering email, compared with 39% of working hours on actual job-related tasks.
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