Email still trumped by face-to-face communication

Email often leads to misunderstandings, while face-to-face and phone communications are still quite popular, according to a government survey.

Over a quarter of men's email jokes fall flat and involve them in lengthy explanations due to 'crossed wires'.

Women aren't that far behind. One in five women admit their emailed jokes have confused their recipients, says a BMRB Omnibus survey for the Department of Trade and Industry.

Men appear to have worse timing than women. Twenty-six per cent of men and 13 per cent of women admit that bad timing in sending jokes has created difficulties.

In addition, one in five men say they've handled sensitive matters badly by email. Only 12 per cent of women found that they had made this mistake.

The 'trigger-finger problem' still has its place in the email world, the survey reveals. Just under 10 per cent of the 1,107 people surveyed admitted they - and presumably their recipients - had suffered confusion after sending an email to the wrong person.

This data goes a long way towards explaining why people still use traditional methods of communication such as face-to-face meetings and the telephone.

The most frequent means of communication with colleagues is face-to-face, with 58 per cent of people claiming to use it, while 28 per cent prefer the phone. Communication with customers is carried out 42 per cent of the time through face-to-face encounters and 38 per cent by phone.

The survey was released by the Department of Trade and Industry just as the 1 October deadline approaches for all businesses to establish statutory minimum dismissal and disciplinary procedures.

Encouraging communication is a key issue for the department. In over a third of the 115,000 work dispute cases that hit Employment Tribunals, the individuals and managers involved have not discussed the case at all.