• BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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    7 months ago

    Lesson I’ve learned - email is for tracking/confirmation/updates/distributing info, not for decision making/discussions. Do that on the phone/meetings, etc, followup with confirmation emails.

    So when someone sends a nonsense email, call them to clarify. They’ll eventually get tired of you calling every time they send their crappy emails.

    • Stretch2m@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      I disagree about the purpose of email. I end most meetings thinking to myself, “That last hour could have been accomplished in a brief email.”

      • maynarkh@feddit.nl
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        7 months ago

        I think you’re both right. A lot of meetings are one person talking and the others listening, that could have been an email. Actual back-and-forth discussion needs to be verbal though, otherwise what could be resolved in 10 minutes takes a week.

        • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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          7 months ago

          Exactly.

          Email doesn’t get buy-in from stakeholders as well, either. It’s also a lot harder to flesh out subletities and nuance in whatever problem you’re addressing.

      • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        Meetings are a different problem.

        If meetings are used merely to disseminate info from above, then it should be an email.

        Email shouldn’t be used for decision-making conversations. It doesn’t work well.

        (I didn’t come up with this, it was taught to me by senior management at one company that had the most impressive communications I’ve ever seen).