Slice of Life Day 4: Dependence on Email
How did people communicate before email? Being in my mid-30s, email has been around for pretty much my whole life. And honestly, I couldn’t imagine life without it! My dependence on email for work was more than apparent than ever when I sent out three in quick succession!
With a staff of 35 that I manage at my public library, I don’t often get a chance to see everyone to relay relevant information as quickly as I would like. And if I’m not working an evening or weekend shift, I may not see some staff at all!
When I became director, I wanted to make sure that I was communicating with staff on a regular basis. I instituted a weekly email update with notes, reminders, and anything I wished everyone on staff to know. It works out pretty well, I can’t always guarantee that everyone reads it, but at least I’m pushing the information to them.
The other day I had to update some information, so I sent out my weekly email, followed by an email about scheduling changes for the upcoming week, followed by a “Shout-out” email to highlight some awesome employees. Yesterday, I had a handful employee remark about the volume of email I sent…
I didn’t feel the need to mention that I’ve got another email in my draft folder ready to send out!
This is my third year participating in the Slice of Life Challenge. I’ll be sharing brief posts that show a glimpse of my life in story-format. I hope you enjoy just a slice of my life as a librarian, book lover, and blogger!
4 Comments
Vanessa Vaile
Although not a librarian and can remember life before email (back when I was an inveterate letter writer), I can identify. I manage a FB page for a local group. The steering committee members like having a page but don’t check in regularly — so I send them email for updates, notices, requests for page input, feedback, etc. They haven’t said anything but would probably agree with your employees about email volume. I’m waiting for that.
lvahey
I am an over-emailer for sure, and I TRY to walk that fine line between “helpful” and “tooooo much”. I think I know where my folks would say I live (and it has a lot of oooo’s!).
Laura Arnhold
I tend to over exclamation point my emails and then have to go back and sprinkle in some periods so that I don’t sound too ridiculous!
arjeha
Technology has made communication so much easier and faster. Gone are the days of memos in the mailboxes or gossip in the faculty room…no, wait. They are still there along with the emails. 🙂