Too much communication is bad for you

It was five years ago today... Here's a little mathematical test - read the following and compare how your current day is measuring up in the communications overload stakes:

Too much communication is bad for you

By Tim Richardson
Published Thursday 3rd June 1999 11:08 GMT

Another turgid report out today says UK office workers are inundated with 171 messages a day. It seems that if you don't get... 46 phone calls 27 emails 19 letters 15 pieces of internal mail 12 Postit notes 12 telephone messages written on scraps of paper 11 voice mails 11 faxes nine mobile phone calls five pager messages two overnight courier packages 2 express postal letters ...then you're simply living in the Dark Ages.

What's more, UK office workers are whingeing that all this means they are so busy dealing with all these communications they can't get on with their jobs, according to the Daily Mail. Really, some people are so ungrateful.

According to a quick Vulture Central poll, it seems that if you don't now get... 46 phone calls 270 emails from Spanish Lottery Agencies and wives of former leaders of Sierra Leone 0 pieces of internal mail (IM did for that) 12 Postit notes 12 telephone messages written on scraps of paper 42 mobile voice messages 11 faxes 3,769 mobile phone calls 428 SMSes of which 200 are operator spam three MMS showing a colleague who's on holiday in Barbados drunk in a beach-front bar 0 courier packages and 0 postal letters because the postmen either opened them looking for credit cards or are on strike... then you're simply living in the Dark Ages.

God alone knows how we ever get any work done. ®