Employees should keep jokes off work emails to up performance
WORK emails should be kept solely for professional use to boost performance, with jokes and pleasantries confined to Whatsapp chats, a psychologist has advised.
Separating social messages from work-related emails reduces “clutter” and keeps a distinction between the two spheres, according to Dr Emma Russell, who says failing to do so can be damaging to both well-being and job performance.
Staff should switch to Whatsapp if they want to engage in “corridor chats”, the reader in occupational and organisational psychology at the University of Sussex recommends.
Speaking on the Instant Genius podcast, Dr Russell said: “Only use your work email to send work-relevant communications.
“Now, that might sound obvious, [but] if you are using email for other purposes – so for general personal exchanges, you know ping-ponging jokes and niceties back and forth – that can be quite nice, but what tends to happen then is it creates quite a lot of clutter.”
Dr Russell recommended that email should exclusively be used for “work-relevant messages” and that alternative platforms should be used for the other aspects of life. “It really does help to keep your inbox down to a minimum,” Dr Russell explained.
“It helps people to identify that you only use email for work, and it’s not something they can use to contact you for other things.
“Sending, you know, big group messages around to people, ‘Have you seen my mug?’, this kind of thing is not helpful.”
She added: “If you are sending messages about critical, congruent work topics – then you are probably on to a winner.
“This is associated with improved wellbeing and improved work performance.”
Dr Russell – whose conclusions are based on a survey of 3,000 working adults – pointed out that in recent years Whatsapp has risen as a work digital communication tool.
The Covid Inquiry into the government decisions conducted during the pandemic, for example, is revealing the extent to which the app, which is owned by Meta, was used as a vital communication tool for ministers and senior officials during that period.
The use of Whatsapp as a professional tool has come under scrutiny after politicians employed a “disappearing messages” function which made it impossible to be truly accountable.
Whatsapps belonging to Matt Hancock, the former health secretary, were revealed to the public by The Daily Telegraph in the Lockdown Files, further betraying the weakness of the mode of communication.
Inappropriate messages to unsuspecting bosses often go viral, with the ease of an accidental message going to the wrong recipient.
“Of course, Whatsapp is actually not something that most organisations and employers support as a tool to exchange business communications,” Dr Russell said.
She added: “What we think we’re finding, and have come across from some of the research – particularly in healthcare industries – is that people are almost using Whatsapp as a replacement for the corridor chats and water cooler moments where you might engage in bit of gossip, a bit of chit chat, or a bit of social support with each other.
“So, it may well be actually that something like Whatsapp could be the forum to engage in those sorts of exchanges.”
‘People are almost using Whatsapp to replace the corridor chats and water cooler moments’