Zero Email Policy

A news article I came across recently talks about a company implementing a Zero Email Policy and that set me thinking. The link to the original article is at the bottom of this post.

Would you cope?

My mailbox is a great repository for official communication, personal conversations with friends and most importantly jokes and I would die if I didn't get to keep my collection of choice 'informative' emails in a variety of subject areas.

Like....

• Health - never sit on a public toilet seat as there are millions of viruses underneath the seat which can kill you, never drink directly from a can of coke as the Coca-cola warehouse has millions of rats and mice living in the warehouse, the use of certain sanitary towels can cause cancer, Cocacola is an effective contraceptive....
• Online safety - emails with advice about the scheming ways Internet companies are collecting our personal data and what you need to do at once (by contacting them with your name, address, telephone number, Driver's License Number etc) to rectify this!
• Spiritual life - emails with inspirational and prayerful emails that are full of blessings, but then I get concerned when the tone changes from prayerful to ominous, as I am told that if I do not share with at least 15 friends, great evil will befall me like so many others before me who did not heed their instructions...
• Sex and Relationships - 'beautiful' women from Eastern Europe writing and wondering why I no longer keep in touch (as if?!), companies trying to sell me Viagra or other performance tools....
• Career - Mystery Shopper or Work-at-Home offers that keep dropping into my mailbox. FYI, I'm being head-hunted here! 
• And my personal favorite
• Financial Windfall - wealthy Foreigners who need my assistance to safely secure inheritance money - for a huge commission, because I (a perfect stranger to them!) seem to be the only one they can trust! Better than winning the lottery, because the amounts in question are mind-boggling! 

I'm sure you know all those types of emails! (www.snopes.com is a good website for checking out the validity of many of these claims)

Personally, I don't think I would cope without email, as I have become very dependent on emails as an efficient,  reliable and useful tool for  communication. (It might not always be safe and secure, judging by the stuff I get but, I'll survive...).

Instant messaging seems very informal and the Facebook style messaging being suggested by Atos - Hmmm.. is that concept really different from email? (Surely the concerns about data will still be there, as this Facebook Style communication will need to be stored somewhere. Facebook keeps talking about building new data centres so obviously that type of technology is still storage and data dependent)
I don't know what type of infrastructure that is currently in existence at Atos, and obviously someone really clever must have thought it through before making the announcement, but I am really keen to see how this pans out. We could all be on the verge of learning something new....

Now excuse me, while I go through my emails and re-read yet another funny joke! (Yes, sometimes I get good jokes which I keep to read again and again....)

Original Article on Zero Email Policy