Why do some people have problems comprehending email? (rant)

[Seantn1k]

If it Needs an Immediate Response, PICK UP THE PHONE

Preach on Brother! :thumbup:

[.RJ]

One thing that does irk me regarding emails comes from my supervisor. Her office is literally right beside mine. I can talk a little louder than normal level and tell her something without getting out of my seat. She will email me one line emails at least 4 or 5 times a day. "Please remember to change this contact" "Dont' forget that our meeting is at 3pm" etc. It's bound to take her longer to pull up her email and send that message than it is for her to just walk 8 steps and tell me.

Thats a CYA thing. She's probably paranoid about something.

[SlimKlim]

Its a little different because I'm at a dot commer, and we all use AIM for day to day communication. Also, not every one here is a crazy technical guru, but most people are adept users, so we don't have to deal with the old/young computer literacy barrier that a lot of other companies do.

I have no problem picking up the phone, however I do avoid it for one reason. I have every email I've ever sent, and I log each and every one of my IMs. I think it bumps up credibility, and if anyone ever says "I didn't receive that" I can open the log, look up the date and cover my ass. That's a lot harder to do with a phone conversation.

Also, IM is more or less in real time, and you can have a back and forth conversation with several people at one time, which is important for me as a platform manager because I'm constantly relaying information between users and a couple of support teams.

The only advantage I see to using the phone is when I need to talk to someone right now AND I need to grab 100% of their attention for something that's very time sensitive.