Published: August 04, 2005
eMarketer.com

Ten years ago, most workers didn't have an e-mail address and didn't have to read e-mail. Today, e-mail is an essential work skill—and a survey finds that poorly written messages are a waste of time for the people who have to read them.

According to a recent survey from Information Mapping Inc. (IMI), 80% of today's office workers say e-mail writing skills are "extremely" or "very important" to the effectiveness of doing their jobs.

Not surprisingly, a great deal of time is now spent at work reading and writing e-mails, with 63% of the respondents saying they spent from one to three hours a day writing them, and some 65% of those surveyed claiming that they have to devote between one and three hours per day reading them.

Sloppily written e-mails waste time. When asked how much time during an average day was wasted reading ineffectively written e-mails, more than 40% said the time loss was more than 30 minutes a day.

"It is evident that organizations can greatly improve productivity and performance by helping employees write more effective e-mail communications," said Deborah Kenny of IMI. "E-mail writing is a critical competency for today's business professionals, but too few e-mail messages are organized clearly or effectively. Poorly written e-mails translate into substantial inefficiencies and costs that have a significant impact on an organization's bottom line."

Badly written messages are not the only time leeches in the office. An AOL study found that workers are constantly checking personal e-mail on the job, too.

For information on Internet use — and misuse — in the workplace, dig into the eStat Database for hundreds of charts and articles on the subject.