The owner of mobile phone company Phones 4u has banned more than 2,500 staff
from using the internal e-mail system.
John Caudwell believes the ban will save workers three hours a day, and his
business at least £1m a month.
He said excellent service required 100 per cent focus, and e-mails were
getting in the way.
"I saw that e-mail was insidiously invading Phones 4u, so I banned it
immediately," Caudwell said.
He claims the quality and efficiency of communication has "increased
tremendously in one fell swoop", and that the business was dramatically
liberated as staff left their keyboards to get face-to-face with colleagues or
call them on the phone.
Employees are already banned from using private e-mail systems at work, and
the only internal e-mail that is still allowed is a morning message from the
group’s HQ in Stoke-on-Trent.
A recent survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
shows that a third of UK firms have sacked staff for e-mail abuse at work.
The People and Technology Survey shows that workers browse the internet for
an average of more than an hour each day, and write 18 personal e-mails.
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