Missing From Work: The Chance to Think, Even to Dream a Little
Today's Wall Street Journal "In the Lead" column, Missing From Work: The Chance to Think, Even to Dream a Little, addresses the recent explosion in corporate e-mail and the toll it has taken on electronically tethered managers:
Managers complain that the relentless flow of computer messages disrupts thought processes and kills creativity. There is no quiet time available during the workday, or even after office hours, to digest information, to ponder fresh ideas, to concentrate wholeheartedly on a difficult problem, or even to daydream. Instead, the expectation that messages from colleagues, bosses, customers and suppliers will be answered promptly requires that employees think only in short bursts, moving quickly from one topic to another.
E-mail is naturally asynchronous — unlike a telephone call or face-to-face meeting, where all parties must converse at more-or-less the same time — but it's often treated like a synchronous medium:
He [Jeff Phelps, chief operating officer and senior vice president at ABE Services, Sonoma, Calif.] misses the days when it was acceptable not to respond to an office memo or a letter for at least 24 hours. That interval allowed time to ponder a topic and originate some new ideas.