Another way to measure the harm caused by email is to see what happens when you reduce its presence. This is exactly what Harvard Business School professor Leslie Perlow explored in an experiment conducted with consultants from Boston Consulting Group. After Perlow introduced a technique called predictable time off (PTO), in which team members were provided set times each week when they could completely disconnect from email and the phone (with the full support of their colleagues), the consultants became markedly happier. Before PTO was introduced, only 27 percent of the consultants reported
...more
