Tough question. Most times when people are using their cell phones at work, it is for personal reasons. If it is being done blatantly or obviously, it can be a real rub for the management staff. They are essentially using company time for personal stuff — not fair to the employer.

I know several companies that have banned the use of cell phones from the workplace, allowing them only at break time and at lunch. I personally think that this should be the appropriate goal. It is not just an issue with people being on their cell phones, but if they ring or beep with a text message while someone is on the phone with the client, it can be distracting. The other issue that is starting to arise is texting, which does not place the cell phone in someone’s ear, and can be done in their lap — being even more covert. The strong majority of all of this is personal and is taking away from the business. Cell phones should be kept out of sight, and not on desks where people can see incoming text messages, etc. Distractions are costly to business.

I think you know I am an advocate of promoting culture rather than rules. If you can have a companywide or departmentwide discussion on this whole issue and ask them to respect their business time and use cell phones only at breaks and at lunch, unless there’s an emergency, it could go a long way towards everyone being committed to not using them during work. If that fails, then a policy or a rule is the next best choice.

Some businesses do allow personal phone calls if they are kept short. This is the other way to go with it — by saying that cell phones are allowed for very brief phone calls but anything lengthy should be done at break or at lunchtime.

If it is one person who seems to be abusing their work time on the cell phone, then I would take the approach of having a discussion with that person. Sometimesthe resultant “buzz” is enough to get everybody to stop.

If there are people in your operation who use their cell phones for work, enforcement is much easier, because if the employer has given them the cell phone, the records are available to the employer to check personal versus business use.

Bottom line, the excessive personal use of cell phones and texting during working hours is a drain to the productivity of the business, and can be career threatening to the individual abusing the privilege.

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Some people actually try to solve complex issues by email. Ridiculous!

Check out our other blog post on Toxic Emailer “Chatroom Chuck.”

When something needs to be discussed, DON’T use email. Email is not for discussing, it is for the passing of one way communication.

So, beware the email meeting. Once you’ve seen an issue go around more than once, call a meeting!

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According to emailreplies.com…

The first step in professionalizing your email communications is to publish a corporate email policy. This email policy accomplishes three objectives:

Commercial objective: in teaching employees how to send effective emails and stating target answering times, you can professionalize your email replies and therefore gain competitive advantage.

Productivity objective: by setting out rules for the personal use of email you can improve productivity and avoid misunderstandings.

Legal objective: in clearly stating what is considered as inappropriate email content you can minimize the risk of law suits and minimize employer’s liability by showing that the company warned employees of inappropriate email use.

For more details on how to satisfy these goals when you create an email policy, read more from emailreplies.com by clicking here.

Urgent Business Forms has made available sample e-mail, Internet, and computer usage policies for businesses to consider.

They offer an 18 page preview of the employee handbook on their website. Although a preview, that 18 pages has some good stuff, including email policies.  Here is the link for the sample.

If you’re a business, you need a policy. ‘Nuff said.

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Email Tip: Set work reminder alarms for the same time.

You’ve learned how to set reminders… When you use them to remind you to do work (rather than attend a meeting, or some event that is time sensitive), set the reminder for the same time each day. This way, you’ll have all of the tasks that need to be accomplished that day together. It can be maddening to get reminders all throughout the day, after you’ve already planned your day. So if you plan your work at about 8:00am, set your work reminders for that time so that you have them as you are planning your work!

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Viral Efficiency Tip: Top-Down Inbox

Please forward this tip to every e-mailer you know…

Let’s help each other be more efficient.

Here’s the email efficiency tip:

Sort your newly received e-mail from top to bottom or bottom to top. Don’t scroll looking for the “easy” ones – IT WASTES TIME! View each email, either handle it, delete it, or sort it into a folder to work later, and once it is removed from your inbox, THEN move on to the next one in line.

Just think: every time you scroll looking for “treasure” you waste time.

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Here’s the press release we made regarding the preliminary results from our new online survey:

Email Productivity Expert Releases Survey Results after 3rd Annual Clean Out Your Inbox Week

READING, PA (FEB. 11, 2010) – Internationally recognized email productivity expert Marsha Egan announces the preliminary findings of her new online assessment designed to measure how effectively email users manage incoming and outgoing email messages. Egan launched the 40-question assessment, adapted from her popular book, Inbox Detox and the Habit of E-mail Excellence (Acanthus 2009), during the 3rd annual Clean Out Your Inbox Week. The results indicate that people aged 55 to 64 have the most efficient email habits.

During Clean Out Your Inbox Week, which occurred January 25-29, 2010, 185 people across the US took Egan’s survey. The results indicate that respondents aged 55-64 have the highest average score of any age group, at 70.64 points out of 100. 45-54 year-olds were the next most productive users, with an average score of 69.25 points, followed by 25-34 year-olds, scoring an average of 69.05 points.

The results further indicate that women, with an average score of 69.43 points, generally have better email habits than men, whose average score is slightly lower at 66.30 points.

Egan’s survey also showed that individuals with graduate degrees, average score of 68.99, exhibited better email habits than respondents at other education levels. Respondents with “Some College” scored 68.83, followed by those with college degrees with an average of 68.29 points. Participants with a High School education or less scored the lowest, with an average of 67.92.

“The overall average individual score from this survey is only 68.64 points. This means that most email users still do not practice healthy email habits. It is so important that we manage our email effectively – both at home and in the office. Good management of your Inbox will save you hours each week and increase your overall productivity significantly. It will reduce the amount of stress in your life and enable you to communicate with greater impact!” comments Egan, CEO of The Egan Group, a consultancy in Reading, PA.

Egan’s survey is free and can be found at www.EganEmailSolutions.com/assessments.html . For more information about Marsha, visit her webpage at www.MarshaEgan.com and for tips that will help you take control of your inbox, search her blog at www.InboxDetox.com.

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Urgent e-mails are toxic.  For a workgroup to truly get anything done, everyone in that workgroup needs to stop using e-mail urgently.  The best rule of thumb is that if anything is needed in under three hours, either pick up the phone, or visit.  We have designed three different posters which say the same thing — “If you need it in less than three hours, pick up the phone!”

Click here to select the poster color combinations that work best for you.

Here is a sample:

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Is your inbox empty yet?

Here is an eight page, printable magazine entitled “E-mail Savvy,” that has a lot of great tips and information that will help you be more productive with your e-mail.  Please feel free to pass it on to anyone who you think will benefit…

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In the spirit of January, a time for new beginnings and personal improvement, we are challenging the world to rethink the way they use email this week. Therefore, we are announcing the launch of the third annual Clean Out Your Inbox Week. All week, we will motivate both individuals and businesses worldwide to take control of their email and regain lost time and profits.

This week, we will launch our  first-ever online assessment (http://eganemailsolutions.com/assessments.html) that will allow emailers to gauge the effectiveness of their email habits. This brand new 40-question survey is divided into two sections, and will rate users’ treatment of incoming and outgoing email messages. Based on the results, the survey will provide its users with advice to improve.

So, register now for our free assessment - see how you rate on a 100 point scale, for your INCOMING email and OUTGOING email practices!

Throughout the week, we will continue to blog daily and tweet  (@marshaegan) about the toxic email habits that pervade the  workplace and offer helpful tips and free downloads that businesses or individuals who want to take control of their inboxes can use.

So, register to receive your email version of our blogposts or subscribe to the RSS feeds so that you don’t miss all of the support you’ll gain from us during “Clean Out Your Inbox Week!”

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Email is here to stay.  It is very quickly becoming the primary communication tool in business. And if you want to hold back your career with your email practices, here are a few hints that can help you:

1.  Waste peoples’ time.  The more you annoy people by creating extra work through a myriad of bonehead maneuvers like sending unnecessary emails, forgetting attachments, and inserting HUGE graphics, the less they will think of your business communications skills.

2.  Send poorly written emails.  Use improper grammar, spelling and punctuation.  Use run on sentences. 

3.  Make sure you don’t use spell check.

4.  Bury the point of your communication in the middle of the message.  By making it very hard for people to know what it is you are trying to convey, you will be sure to make a name for yourself in business circles.

5.  Forward lengthy chain emails, saying “see below.”  A great way to call attention to your lack of respect for the receiver is to forward an email that has at least 10 previously forwarded emails contained in it.  This forces the recipient to have to read through all 10 to try to figure out what is important.

6.  Copy as many people as you can.  This one is more subtle.  By adding many extra recipients, you might think you’re communicating, but what you’re really doing is adding more work to peoples’ already full plates.  They may not catch on to this one right away, but over time, you won’t be able to hide.

7.  Gossip via email.  Even though you think that your friend won’t rat you out over the gossip you sent – hey, it is a permanent record, and that “friend” could be as catty as you!

8.  Put  several names in the “To:” line

9.  Write long and rambling emails.

10. Send emails between 1am and 5am.

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