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Grrrr! Those drat emails.....

It is near-enough impossible to avoid the iniquitous email.    Like it or not we are living with an "invasion" into our space and onto our time.    

"People keep claiming that email will die, that some new technology will replace it. But it lives on. And on. And on.

Sure, email can be a great thing. But it can steal our lives if we let it. From killing our personal time to screwing up our work patterns, here are some of the ways email can really mess us up.

1. Kills Work/Personal Time Balance

StrategyOne, a market research firm, asked Americans how they feel about the balance of work and home life. Turns out that 89 percent of poll respondents were unhappy with the balance, and 54 percent called it a “significant” problem.

Work is dominating our lives even when we're not actually in the office. Job insecurity and the fear of not being perceived as performing chains us to our inbox, even if we work remotely.

Many of us live in a work culture where we feel we have to respond to emails at all hours. No matter that we might be involved in offline work or activities that should command our full attention. Or—perish the thought -- engaging in personal time. Email follows us into the car, to the dinner table and even to the loo. (No kidding. See: “Checking Email in the Bathroom? You’re Far From Alone.”)

I've been on dates where no matter how special the occasion, my date has pulled out his iPhone and checked his email. I have a “three strikes you're out rule” on that one. First, I ask you to stop. Second time, I give you a warning. Third time I’m gone. If somebody is driving me, they get one warning. And yet I am perceived as strangely intolerant of what many consider normal behavior.

When we scratch out a few vacation days, instead of the declarative “I am on vacation, and will respond to your email when I return,” we post the timid “I will only check email infrequently,” or the semi-plausible “I will have limited access to email.”


Keep reading this piece from AlterNet here.

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