U.K.-based international information technology services company Atos recently banned email in its workplace, as the company's chief executive believes it to be a waste of time, the Daily Mail reports.
Thierry Breton announced that instead, Atos' 80,000 workers across 42 countries should spend more time interacting with each other on the phone or in person, or make use of real time, tightly controlled interfaces such as text messages and social media.
For HR administration, the issue of workplace email is an ongoing one. One of their responsibilities is to ensure that employees are devoting their workdays to actual work, and Atos isn't the first corporation to limit or remove email in an attempt to reduce wasted time and improve business results.
"Email is an important part of our daily lives, but email can be an endless beast of pointless distractions, drawn out disagreements and manic messages," said David Grossman, author of The Definitive Guide to Taming the Em@il Monster.
However, it's unlikely that email will be going anywhere anytime soon for most companies. A recent Forrester Research study found that more than 95 percent of businesses use it as a communication platform, Business Computing World reports.
