Whether your boss is a plain ol’ jerk is another story… but if your boss sends urgent emails, that behavior qualifies him or her to be deemed an “emailing jerk.”
Let’s be clear: I define an urgent email as any email message that requests or requires action within 3 hours, not three minutes.
So why does this behavior warrant such a distinctive title? Because when that boss uses email to initiate immediate action, he or she has just scared the entire department into HAVING to have their inboxes open, dinging and flashing while they work.
“So what?” cries the emailing jerk. Well that behavior has just caused the entire department to be interrupted every time an email message shows up! Let’s see… the average worker today receives anywhere from 80 to 150 emails. Hmmmm. With every interruption taking an average of 4 minutes for recovery, that is a VERY expensive “so what.”
Instead, convince the urgent emailing jerks in your office to call or visit when something is needed in less than three hours. This allows all of you to triage your email handling, and actually get some work done for a change.
For posters to help you promote this behavior, click here for free posters you can use.
And, oh, if you’re a boss, and someone forwarded this to you-it wasn’t meant to describe YOU – just the other emailing jerks in your organization.
