RIP: Returned Every Email(安息吧:这个人回复了每一封邮件)

Linda Stone Linda Stone 2008/06/28

I fell in love with email in 1983. I was a computer-savvy educator and children’s librarian teaching teachers about the new technologies 
available to them. Email came into my life, offering immediate gratification: no stamp, no trip to the post office, no phone tag, no long messages. Questions were answered quickly. Personal exchanges often felt as intimate as a written letter or a phone call, but were immediate and more frequent.

Years later, in 1990, I was working at Apple, and I missed a weekend call to my mother. She chided me: “Your tombstone isn’t going to say ‘Returned every email, returned every call.’ It could say, ‘Loving daughter of…” My mother was thinking about my tombstone and I was thinking about email.

Then, between 2000-2002, when I was working for Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, it wasn’t unusual for my inbox to have a thousand new emails a day. Everybody and their dog seemed to be on email. I filed, filtered, deleted, and delegated. And I called my mother on the weekends.

When I left Microsoft, my emails tapered off to 100-200 a day. In 2006, met Bruno, a mid-level manager in Silicon Valley. When I sent him an email, a message bounced back into my inbox:

“My email response time is 1-2 weeks. 

If you need immediate assistance, you can I.M. me between 9:30 a.m. and 6:30 pm PST or call me between 9:30 -11 a.m. PST.

For issues related to contracts, please contact…”

Bruno, GenY and twenty-something, named three communication tools: email, I.M., and the telephone. He spelled out his response habits. That got my attention.
Why don’t we all take a cue from Bruno? We could start a social movement. We can take back the inbox. I’ll call it eFree.

In the “signature” at the end of an email, people often include name, contact information, a quote, or a legal disclaimer. Let’s modify that. How about cutting and pasting the eFree signature below into your email signature? By adding it, you’re communicating your preferences, just like Bruno did. You’re letting the recipient know how to communicate with you.

eFree
1. Reply all is usually a bad idea. 

2. If you’re cc’d, there’s no need to reply.

3. A short, thoughtful email gets a quicker response. Long emails are read last.

4. If this issue cannot be resolved in 3 emails, consider scheduling a call or a meeting.

5. Thank you. Always lovely. Sometimes not necessary.

Are you ready to take back the inbox? Is there a funnier or more compelling way to say this? Radar readers have great suggestions, so thank you in advance!

(special thanks to Michael Tubach, an attorney with O’Melveny & Myers LLP, who helped craft the eFree principles)

This post originally appeared on BusinessWeek.com.

翻译:xiaochong

我是1983年爱上电子邮件的。那时我是计算机教师,教孩子们他们身边的新技术。电子邮件带给我直接的便利:不再需要邮票,不用去邮局,没有电话留言,没有长长的消息。你提出的问题立刻能被回答。人与人之间的交流常常像写信或打电话一样亲切,而且更直接、更频繁。

几年之后的1990年我在Apple工作,一次我忘掉了周末给妈妈打电话。她骂我:“你死了之后墓碑上不会写“这个人回复了每一封电子邮件,回了每一个电话。”而是要写“…可爱的女儿”。我妈妈在想我的墓碑而我只想着邮件。

后来,2000年到2002年我在微软为CEO Steve Ballmer工作,通常收件箱里每天有1000封信邮件。所有人和他们的狗好像都用电子邮件。我存下来、筛选、删除再转发。我在周末给妈妈打了电话。

离开微软后我的邮件减少到每天100-200封。2006年我遇到了Bruno,硅谷的一位中层经理。我给他发邮件弹回一封信:

“我回邮件的时间是1-2周。
如果你需要马上联系我,可以在太平洋时间上午9:30 到下午6:30之间用即时通信找我,或者在上午9:30到11:00间打电话。
如果是关于合同的问题,请联系……”

Bruno,Y一代,二十几岁的年轻人,给出了三种通信工具:电子邮件,即时通信,电话。他讲出了他回复的习惯。这引起我的注意。为什么我们不从中得到一些启发?应该开始一场运动,收起我们的收件箱。我将之称为eFree。

大家在邮件结尾处“签名”经常包括名字、联系信息、一句引言或者是一个法律否认声明。让我们把它修改一下。把下面eFree签名贴到你的签名里如何?这样你就讲出了你的习惯,就像Bruno那样,你会让收件者知道如何与你交流。

eFree
1.回复所有邮件不是个好主意。
2.如果你在CC里面你不用回复邮件。
3.简短有思想性的邮件会更快被回复。我会最后读长邮件。
4. 如果这个问题不能在3封邮件里解决,可以考虑打电话或见面。
5.非常感谢。有时不是必需的

你准备好收起收件箱了吗?还有没有更有趣更好的办法来表达这个想法?Radar的读者一向擅于提出好的建议,在此先行谢过!

(非常感谢Michael Tubach,an attorney with O’Melveny & Myers LLP,他帮助做了eFree的准则。)

这篇文章最初发在BusinessWeek.com。

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blog/lindas/rip-returned-every-email.txt · 最后更改: 2008/09/08 由 radarman
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