Proof that people do not read emails...

[draggar]

We had a large voice over IP (VoIP) conversion yesterday in my office. But- this did not go without any warning.

In my inbox I see emails from corporate:
April 22nd - an email with a spreadsheet that has everyone's name and new phone number

April 27th - reiteration of the previous email plus links to some DOCs that have some basic training on the new system.

April 28th - Meeting maker was sent out for a conference cal (today) about in depth training, how to use it, and to answer any questions

From me:
April 29th - An email to everyone explaining the process and asking everyone to pick up their new USB headsets and when the conversion is completed I'll need to pick up the analog phones.

Yesterday (May 4th) - An email explaining that the process is done and I will be collecting the old analog phones.

Here's the proof that no one reads their emails:
* I get complaints that they had no notification about this. (Really? See all the emails above?)
* Complaints that they had no training on this and do not know how to use it (Apr 27th email).
* Complaints that they never received their new numbers and haven't had the time to give their customers their new numbers (Apr 22nd email - plus several more later)
* Complaints that they need their old analog phones (problem solved - I collected the rest this morning before anyone came in)
* Complaints that they haven't moved their personal 800#'s to the new number - that's already been taken care of though the network people.

[ottid]

Glad we don't have that problem at work, the people not reading e-mails.

What does happen at work though is the boss putting a notice up on a notice board which promptly gets filled with other things and said notice is not read by most people at work place. I think he got a little hint at Christmas time when the week before Christmas he put up a note for a work dinner on the Sunday before Christmas (Unbeknowest to him we had already had our own one, we thought he was taking to long to get around to it), who gives people that short notice for a work do? Also when he decided to do evaluations on everyone that notice got covered up/ignored because it wasn't very well written and just said "Evaluations will start on this date" After this date it is amended to ask us to fill in a form, though I'm not sure if he printed enough to begin with, and then consequently had to print more forms out for the part timers (ie me).

This time the staff notice has been handed out to everyone and marked off on a list so you can't say you didn't see it/never heard anything about it. We usually do daily meetings before we open, but is usually done only on weekdays or weekends when the boss is there. Frequently things are not passed on from weekday staff to weekend staff, important stuff is, just not the little bits like "We have this sale going" or "This promotion is running with this media outlet"

[MsFabulous]

I think the general rule seems to be that 98% of people will not read something unless they absolutely have to these days... That's what it feels like anyway

At my brief call centre job, mass emails got sent out 2-5 times a day, mostly just requests for everyone to get their coffee orders in and such... It did mean that most of the people there tended to ignore their inbox a bit though even for important stuff.
Customers are the same. When our store introduced a small charge for plastic bags, the proceeds of which go to an environmental charity, we had signs *everywhere*. On pillars, on the end of shelves, on the queue line at the registers, on the displays, and on every single register counter. Maybe...... 5% of people read it. All the rest we've had to explain it to them. Over a year later and we're still having to explain to >90% of people. /sigh

Not quite the same, but my favourite story of someone not paying attention to what they should have been... We have a coffee shop within our bookstore, well to the back. One of my coworkers one day had an older man come in and say to him, "Oh, you're a bookstore?! I thought you were a coffee shop! You oughta have a sign up so I know you're a bookstore!"
Never mind the giant sign out the front, the dozen tables and oodles of shelves of books, and racks of magazines that you had to look PAST to focus on the - at that distance - quite small name of the coffee shop inside....