posted at 15:43:04
By Flipping Heck!

Posted In
GTD/Productivity

I've recently started reading the Four Hour Work Week* (hereafter 4HWW to stop me getting RSI) by Tim Ferris and, even though I'm only on page 97 I'm already a bit annoyed by this book.

In the chapter I'm currently on, Ferris talks about regaining time by only checking email and voicemail at designated times of the day such as 12pm and 4pm - and he stresses not to check email first thing in the morning. Doing so will save you x amount of time per day - but would this actually work in the Real World? I can't see how it could.

Now, I don't know if it's the type of job that I'm in that's leading me to the conclusion I've come to, or the fact that

Sep

16th
2008

How not to use email at work: Sexist chap wants female skivvy. Er.. I mean flatmate

posted at 15:00:00
By Flipping Heck!

Posted In
Email

I've written before about the need to be careful about what you send in an email at work but the story that I've seen in several UK national newspapers over the past couple of days really takes the biscuit.

Paul Eley sent what sounds like a harmless email around his workplace asking for a new flatmate. Nothing wrong with that in itself - until you realise that he only sent it to female colleagues and that the content of the email was, shall we say, inappropriate at best:

Hi Everyone

I am looking for a new flatmate as my old one has now left. Could you pass this on to anyone you might think would be interested.

I don't need any rent from any potential flatmate, so it will be rent free. The only thing they would pay for is their own food.

I am looking for a girl flatmate between 18 years old and 26 years old. Preferably someone who is very tidy and reasonable nice to look at.

Instead of paying rent I would expect them to do the following.

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Sep

1st
2008

What your email response time says about you

posted at 09:00:00
By Flipping Heck!

Posted In
GTD/Productivity

I read an article in The Daily Mail called "Email etiquette: What your response time reveals about your personality".

From the Article by Liz Hull:

It's usually considered polite when a friend or colleague replies to your email promptly.

But such a swift response may have a downside - it may mean the sender is stressed or has low self-esteem, according to research.

Now, I'm not sure about you, but when I get an email if I have the time available (and I'm at a computer obviously!) I reply straight away as:

It's polite
I hate the inevitable follow-up "did you get my email" conversion/phone call/email/post-it

But then maybe that's because the article goes on to say:

Women, in particular, felt more pressure to respond quickly to a new email than men, she said.

I think the most worrying point of the article is:

The research reveal....

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Jun

19th
2008

Be careful how you use email at work

posted at 09:00:00
By Flipping Heck!

Posted In
Blogging

Out-Law.com recently reported that half of UK companies have fired an employee for serious misuse of company email:

Companies' principal worries about email use are that employees could be breaking financial disclosure or corporate governance rules, could be leaking intellectual property or trade secrets, could be leaking sensitive memos or could be breaching privacy regulations.

Privacy issues aside, I can't believe that anyone could be so silly to use company email to break company rules. But then, we have had the case of the City lawyer and his Ketchup damages claim and the The guy who bragged about his sex life in an email so I suppose it's completely plausible that someone could that stupid to send out banned information from a traceable source.

As email is used more and more, it's going to get abused more and more, sad but true.

My personal pet peve (cu....

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