A report in DMnews highlights the issue of email misuse and the growing corporate “cancer” of email-driven loss of productivity. The article puts real numbers on well-known issues including the 4 minute lag in getting back on track after being interrupted by email! However, email is also, unfortunately, the easiest of web-technologies to blackball! No one has ever conducted meaningful research on the productivity loss caused by employees’ excessive use of cellphones or officephones for personal work! Likewise, no #s are available for hours lost in watercooler conversations, extended lunch hours or Cybermonday type web-shopping sprees from work!! No research has been conducted on how email and the web have super-enabled telecommuting, working-while-on-vacation and working-while-sick!! The market for connectivity-enhancing phones and multitasking gizmos has never been hotter!! Companies grappling with email usage issues ought to rally employees around a culture of responsible computing and Internet usage! Hotel companies are not immune to the curse (and, of course, many benefits) of email. It is no longer uncommon to see General Managers and department heads of both big and small hotels fiddling perpetually with their blackberries – while most of them are probably responding to operational situations, a not so insignificant minority of them aren’t.
The curse of email?
Published by
Vijay Dandapani
Co-founder and president of a New York based hotel company for 24 years. Grew the firm to five hotels in Manhattan and also developed a greenfield project at MacArthur airport, New York. Speaker at numerous prestigious forums including Economy Hotels World Asia, Lodging Conference, NYU, Columbia University Real Estate Roundtable, Baruch College's Zicklin School and ALIS. President and ceo of New York City Hotel Association since January 2017. View all posts by Vijay Dandapani
Companies often focus on how technology, such as email, has caused a lackof productivity. The web is evolving and instead of focusing on how to constrict use of email and other such services companies should be focused on the new avenues that are available to connect them with their customers directly. By focusing on creating a positive and dynamic technological environment companies will gain much more than by restricting usage. Innovation is the key to success.