Office: When to Talk and when to Email

Office communication has freed up a lot of employees time by being able to send emails, whether it be a letter, picture, documents to sign, or even conversations to have. We no longer have the time constraints of snail mail, messenger services, different time zones, etc. But, sometimes you do a disservice by using this fast paced communication when the situation may have warranted an actual person to person meeting, even if it is only on the phone. Only you can figure out which situation needs more attention than the other, because we all have our own style when it comes to communicating. One person may be very articulate and talented at emailing that they do so with the majority of their interactions. Other people feel more connected by talking to and directly speaking to people in person or on the phone. I usually use both and find that email is too hard for me to get a tone to follow in the email so I have adopted the following ideas:

When to talk:

Most interactions that have any emotional involvement at all, usually need to be handled by talking. Sometimes you need to talk to someone face to face; and other times it is not possible because the person is in another city or out of your range and you may need to make a phone call. Even if those emotions are positive, and sometimes even more when the emotions are positive, it's too easy to shoot something onto a voicemail or email when things are on the positive side; but it helps you and the person you are communicating with to have a plus side interaction on your to do list, so remember to give yourself time for the good calls, also.

When to email:

Most all of fact base work/correspondence can easily be emailed. That frees up your time and decision making because it's much easier communicating facts than emotions and feelings in a quick note. So it is very beneficial to anyone who works in an environment with email that you train yourself to see the interactions and to do lists everyday on a scale of fact base or more people/feelings oriented; that way you can split it up on how you will at least handle the communication process and time it will take for each task and action.

I find that if I can split out my workload between the two it also makes me more available for the people interactions that count, good and bad. I don't tend to labor over and communicate too much information when all I really need is to shoot a quick email of a yes or no answer or some numbers or reference information someone has asked me for.