Dr. Ian M. Paul was suffering from email fatigue. As a good physician, he wanted to understand what was causing his symptoms. So, for a year, the pediatrician tracked the number of mass distribution emails he received from the medical center where he works. The total: 2,035.
How much did this email overload cost, Dr. Paul wondered. He estimated that reading each email took 30 seconds. Based on the average salary of a doctor at his institution, the yearly cost of reading mass emails comes to about $1,641 per physician. Multiply that by 629 employed doctors and the cost exceeds $1 million.
And that’s not counting the costs of distraction or the consequences of important information missed amid the inbox clutter.
How many of the mass emails your organization sends are really necessary? Can employees trust that leaders’ emails will be clear and to the point? Would improving leaders’ writing skills reduce email fatigue?
You can download free tools to Develop Leaders’ Writing Skills here. This free 22-page whitepaper includes a job aid on writing emails that get action and resources for calculating the ROI on writing training or coaching.
Source: Paul, I. M., & Levi, B. H. (2014, March). Metastasis of e-mail at an academic medical center. Journal of the American Medical Association. Retrieved from http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/1812612
