[lostgame]

This, this, this. Commenter above definitely needs to keep this in mind.

I have explicitly told my coworkers - all of them - to reach me exclusively on Microsoft Teams; because my Outlook ‘inbox’ is so consistently full of garbage that I’d say about 1/40 messages are actually relevant to me.

Email is a problem that needs to be solved. I could never - do never - blame anyone for not answering an email.

[r_hoods_ghost]

And I (and half of my company at this point) am the opposite. Except for the one day a week I'm in the office I'm permanently on do not disturb on teams chat except for my boss and the CEO, and teams calls are forwarded to voicemail with an "if you need to ask me a question, send me an email or request a meetingand send me an agenda. In an emergency call me on my real phone." Asynchronous communication for the win! Also set email rules. My favourite is any email I am just cc'd in to is automatically moved into my ignore folder (unless it's from boss or CEO). I have a job that requires being able to concentrate on a task for long periods and instant messaging and calls are absolute productivity killers.

[lostgame]

Sounds like you and I wouldn’t get along. :P

The joy of synchronous communication is that it is also asynchronous. If you didn’t get my Teams message at the time - you will after!

Email offers no benefits I can see compared to instant messaging. Plus, you can always turn off notifications. I also don’t need to make filters to drown out the massive amount of sheer noise and unrelated garbage.

When someone sends me a direct message on Teams, I know that’s a real person, asking for me directly.

I have never had a Teams notification, at my current workplace of 3+ years - sent to me by a robot. Imagine that!

In contrast - least 90% of the email sent to ‘me’ from within my company is not from a real person. I’d say 98% of email - not exaggerating whatsoever - is completely unrelated to me, or effectively ‘corporate spam’.

What benefit does email provide above a service like Teams, and how does it curtail all of the above issues?

By requesting people use email exclusively to reach you; you’re choosing to inconvenience me, and many others - because you’ve refused to move on to the next logical step in communicating with your coworkers. You’re forcing me to use a service to communicate with others that is ineffective at best - frustrating at hell at worst.

It appears entitled, and; frankly, you’re the type of person I’d hate working with because of it.

An email sent to me is a fish in a bucket of mostly fake fish.

An IM sent to me is a direct message, sent by a human; specially to me - and if I don’t see it when it’s sent to me - I can still see it later.