TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
I think William violated #1 (for verbosity), and apart from #4, Paul clearly violated #3 (uninformative Subject line) and #5 (sending this to the entire group instead of first getting buy-in from just the moderators). As for #9, if you don't have time to receive or send a "thank you", you might want to reconsider your work/life balance as well as the point of your existence on this planet.
I like a few of the points, but I find the authors' assumption of moral authority sophomoric.
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+lporrello=illumina -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+lporrello=illumina -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of William Sherman
Sent: Friday, July 13, 2012 7:18 AM
To: 'tech2wr-l'
Subject: RE: The e-mail charter
Email was thought to improve our world in personal lives and business. And with full respects to Kevin's comments about newer technology and the power to do amazing things, it has. However, it has also had a side effect no one anticipated - a huge burden. Before email, most people received few memos per day. They usually received any instructions, questions, and information verbally or in a stack of papers dropped on their desk. Sorting importance was easy - important stuff had someone standing at your desk demanding action or calling on the phone every few minutes.
Today, instead of a few messages, you get hundreds and maybe even thousands.
All this consumes time that most never realize they are using. Several years ago, I was noticing I was receiving over 400 emails a day on the average.
Many were automatically generated from servers spitting out reports or from groups I was barely a member in, but none the less, I had to take a look at each one to see if I could ignore it or needed to take action. At an average of 1 minute per email to open, scan, decide to keep or throw, and maybe respond, those emails took 400 minutes of my day. That is 6 hours and 40 minutes. That left 1 hour and 20 minutes of a work day to actually work.
Naturally I was not opening all every day, and so I did a very careful purge of what email came in and what groups I could unsubscribe from without it being a work impact, since many groups put you in multiple email broadcasts.
I got it down to around 200 emails a day, which was still 3-1/2 hours.
This job I have now produces around 15 emails a day average.
I get a lot more work done.
It was like computers which would improve the work of writers by increasing our speed and output. Mostly, it has improved our ability to generate tons of unnecessary paper that ends up being shredded.
I definitely think subscribing to this charter is worth considering. It would save me the need to delete a lot of pointless e-mails that I frequently see posted in this group.
Yehoshua Paul
www.technicalwriting.com
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Create and publish documentation through multiple channels with Doc-To-Help. Choose your authoring formats and get any output you may need.
Try Doc-To-Help, now with MS SharePoint integration, free for 30-days.
