Many articles have appeared in the press over the past year talking about the phenomenal increase in the number of emails sent and received and the incredible amount of time workers are spending dealing with email on a daily basis. Surprisingly to us many of these articles quoted our numbers – the most popular stat was our estimate that business users send/receive 156 emails/day in 2008 – everyone of course has a different opinion as to whether this number is too high or too low, but most press articles have used it to make the point that “email wastes time” and that workers are spending too much time on email. We do not agree – when asked by journalists we have consistently made the following points:

1. Email is usually a faster alternative to other forms of communication (i.e. letters, phone calls, meetings, etc.)
2. The fact that the amount of email is increasing is a reflection of the fact that the overall pace of business has accelerated and the number of individuals usually drawn into a discussion has grown.

We don’t think email “wastes time”, on the other hand we believe “email saves time”. Of course, other forms of communication – e.g. instant messaging, social networking sites, etc. – are emerging to provide alternative channels of communication to email. In time these will also be pointed to as “time wasters” but in effect we believe they are not, quite the opposite email and these newer forms of communication are time enhancers and provide a level of business responsiveness that could not even begin to be imagined only 10 years ago.