Law Practice Management Asked and Answered Blog
Category: Email
Mar 13, 2019
Law Firm Attorneys Overuse of Email and Text Messaging
Question:
I am the owner of a four-attorney firm in Indianapolis, Indiana. The firm has three associate attorneys plus three paralegals and three other staff members. One of my attorneys recently advised me that he wanted to do more work remotely. The next day I emailed him my thoughts and advised him that I would not let him work remotely. He then emailed me that he was giving me his two weeks notice. What should I have done differently?
Response:
You should have met with him personally and discussed the matter face to face. Email has its uses but I find it is often overused and used in situations where it should not be.
Note the following scale of communication media and richness.
1. Face to face
2. Telephone
3. Email and texts
Face to face is the richest form of communications and should be used for sensitive communications such as performance reviews and other such discussions concerning performance, praise, training and mentoring, etc. It should have been used in the situation you discussed in your question.
Telephone is the second richest form of communications and should be used for less sensitive communications or for face to face situations discussed above when a face to face meeting is physically not possible.
Email, text, and other written communications should be used for routine communications such as assignment of projects and tasks, work instructions, etc.
Sensitive and difficult communications should be communicated through a rich medium such as face-to-face meetings and routine communications through a lean medium such as a memo.
Media richness is determined by the speed the media provides, the variety of communications channels on which it works, the extent of personal interactions allowed, and the richness of language it accommodates. As tasks become more ambiguous, you should increase the richness of the
media that you use.
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John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC
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