Handling the stress of the electronic world.

America is in the middle of a technological explosion. Research shows that the number of cellular telephone subscribers has grown from 340,000 in 1985 to over 130 million today. (1) The percentage of American households with at least one personal computer has increased from 46.8 percent to 55.9 percent in just the last 4 years. (2)

The number of e-mail messages sent from businesses in North America has risen from 40 billion in 1995 to an estimated 1.4 trillion in 2001, and an estimated 25 million workers throughout the United States are connected by e-mail networks. (3) According to one study, executives spend at least 2 hours a day using e-mail, and employees send an average of 20 e-mails and receive about 30 e-mails a day. Worldwide, about 4 trillion e-mails are sent each year, an increase of more than 600 percent in 6 years. (4)

In law enforcement, communications systems between and among agencies have become equally dependent upon technology. Over 29 percent of local police agencies, employing 73 percent of all officers in the United States, use in-field computers, an increase from 13 percent in just 4 years (1993-1997). (5)

In Florida, the number of messages transmitted over the Florida Crime Information Center telecommunications system has grown from over 72 million in 1980 to 433 million in 2000, and the number of terminals connected rose from 1,701 in 1980 to 26,822 in 2000. Much of the latter growth results from the proliferation of mobile digital terminals and personal computers in police vehicles.

Enhanced information systems, driven by increased personal computer support, have led to improved statistical analyses of law enforcement issues and performance, best exemplified by programs, such as the New York Police Department's COMPSTAT (Computerized Analysis of Crime Statistics) program. (6)

For many police agencies, the technology boom is best characterized by the expansion in linkages of personal computers and the reliance on e-mail as one of the most common means of communication within the department. For many administrators, staff, and line personnel, the avalanche of e-mails has both positive and negative consequences. On the one hand, it offers a real-time, expeditious method of communication, especially over a distance, and can ensure that all of the recipients receive the same written message. On the other hand, in a number of agencies, it has replaced direct personal communication, can become a crutch for managers and supervisors, and often forces administrators to be tied to their desks, impacting hands-on leadership and the practice of "management by walking around."

This high-tech world is a significant stressor on law enforcement personnel, especially those in leadership and management positions. How can they best deal with it? How can they best prepare individuals and their agencies to handle the stress of high-tech communications? How can they best balance "high tech, high touch?" (7)

PERSONAL TACTICS

The stress caused by the volume and frequency of e-mails and the expected turnaround on responses necessitates the development of stress-mitigation practices. Individual managers can take certain steps to ensure that they efficiently handle e-mails that they receive and send.

Dealing with the "Ding"

Many computers announce incoming mail with the "ding" of a bell, and users frequently stop what they are doing and turn to the screen. The interruption can pull managers away from necessary work, distract from telephone conversations, or interrupt them from personal interactions with their subordinates. The "ding" easily can become a major irritant, reduce efficiency, and affect attention to other details.

Yet, with other office appliances, especially the telephone, people quickly learn to control interference, assuring uninterrupted meetings and conversation. In the interest of effective time management, people even learn to return calls only during specific time periods. E-mail offers managers an enhanced ability to apply the same time-management principles by allowing a response in a time frame that they, not the computer, decide.

Handling E-mail Overload

For many managers in the electronic world, communication via email virtually ensures information overload. Memoranda that administrative assistants historically have screened now come directly to managers who become part of a myriad of mail lists, frequently without their request or permission, to keep everyone informed.

Yet, similar to paper memoranda, not every piece of electronic communication demands a manager's personal attention. While requiring effort, managers should remove themselves from generic mailing lists that have little or no direct relevance to their current position; wean subordinates, and even bosses, from including nonaffected personnel on mailing lists or as a "cc"; and, even upon initial scanning, delete unimportant e-mails.

Overloading Others with E-mail

The admonition "screen your mail" applies not only to what people receive but to what they send. The strength of e-mail correspondence lies in its immediacy and brevity. Short messages, especially when read on the screen, can better keep the attention of the reader and allow for the expeditious communication that e-mail offers. Further, before sending an e-mail, especially one with copies to multiple receivers, individuals should question whether it is something the recipient really needs to spend time reading and whether the sender would want to receive it in a similar situation.

Treating E-mails with Etiquette 

One of the strengths of electronic communication also is one of its most significant drawbacks--it allows people to immediately respond to a sender's message. For this reason, managers never should send an e-mail message or response when angry or upset. Once they hit the send icon, it is virtually impossible to retrieve that message.

The etiquette of social and business interaction applies even to electronic communications. How a person says something in e-mail language, as in face-to-face communication, is just as important as what they say. While the computer affords an easy medium through which to vent emotions, executives and managers cannot afford to vent and send.

When individuals compose and send documents or messages without performing the same review appropriate for it in paper form, they risk leaving typographical errors, grammatical mistakes, or information presented poorly or unclearly. Not only should managers reread electronic mail before sending it, but they should print and read it aloud to reduce both errors and embarrassment.

Ensuring E-mail Efficiency

Time-management courses regularly encourage managers to streamline their process of handling written correspondence and, as a result, improve their efficiency. To this end, managers are encouraged to handle paper only once, write notes with assignments directly on the memorandum or document, and keep their inbox at a manageable level.

Some of the same advice can apply to electronic correspondence. To be most effective, managers in the electronic world should avoid handling an e-mail more than once. They should open it, respond to the sender or refer/forward it to a more appropriate respondent or staff member, or, if necessary, defer action, pending a more appropriate time or further information, and let the original sender know immediately and electronically the action that they have taken. Managers also should avoid letting the electronic inbox build to a level higher than that accepted or tolerated for a paper inbox. Unless the electronic inbox is used as a "tickler system," it serves as a temporary holding device, not a permanent means of storage.

Avoiding Computer Stress at Home

The ease of accessing agency electronic systems via laptop computers, the volume of e-mails received at all hours by many managers, and the expectations of upper-level executives encourage managers to take their computers home on a regular basis. For many, it is far easier to work on electronic correspondence and projects at home than to face the electronic inbox everyday.

Yet, from a stress management perspective, while the practice of taking a laptop home may alleviate some short-term stressors, it actually can compound job stress when done on a regular basis. One of the most effective methods to alleviate stress is to assure a proper break from work issues and to get appropriate, and necessary, relaxation. Working in an office for 10 to 12 hours per day, as many managers do, and handling office work at home for an additional several hours fail to provide that necessary break. With a family at home, this type of behavior fosters even more stress.

Hiding Behind the Computer

Although e-mail has many benefits, drawbacks also exist. For example, it allows managers who lack interpersonal skills or dislike dealing with subordinates to hide behind the computer screen. Impersonal messages frequently can take the place of direct personal contact and, rather than looking a subordinate in the eye to convey bad news, the manager has the option of communicating screen-to-screen. The electronic medium easily can become a crutch to replace effective interaction and communication with personnel or colleagues. Electronic communications should enhance, expedite, and expand management responsibilities, but it should not replace interpersonal management and leadership skills.

When dealing with issues and, particularly, bad news affecting an individual subordinate, hiding behind the computer proves both ineffective and morale-breaking. As one retired executive cautioned, "personnel issues are personal" and the impersonal electronic communication tool should rarely, if ever, be used. Performance reviews and disciplinary actions cannot be effectively administered by a "virtual reality supervisor" through an exclusively electronic medium. Such personnel issues require interaction, personal communication, and sensitivity, and the use of computer messages in such circumstances impedes, rather than encourages, appropriate and effective dialogue. Managers can better handle many issues in a face-to-face meeting, often resolving matters more expeditiously and with less stress on participants than the back-and-forth banter of e-mail.

Additionally, even for effective managers, an agency's heavy emphasis on electronic communication may drive managers into their offices. Because their own bosses expect an immediate response to emails, managers actually may decrease their own tendency to communicate directly and personally with subordinates and to engage in management by walking around. In this era of technology, managers should avoid becoming such slaves to "high tech" that they cannot engage in "high touch." Yet, within some agencies, the open doors of managers are closing with the emphasis on technological exchange.

Managers also cannot allow their employees to use computers to avoid interpersonal contact with peers or even their own bosses. The lore of electronic communication regularly emphasizes cases where an employee sends an e-mail message to another individual in the very next workspace or across the hall, rather than walking a few feet and discussing an issue. In such instances, it is the responsibility of the manager to ensure employee discourse and interaction.

Recognizing the Permanency of E-mails

The ease and informality of electronic communication cause many managers to forget that it produces a permanent record of a written correspondence. In many states, the e-mail of law enforcement officers on their departmental computer is, in fact, considered public record and becomes accessible to both the media and the general public. As a result, what people send is neither anonymous nor private. The content, comments, and tone of e-mail messages, no matter where they are sent, become available for a wider variety of readers than most people anticipate.

For example, an e-mail sent from the office of one chief executive officer directly to his 400 company managers ended up being sent indirectly to his 3,100 employees worldwide. While he stated that his intent was motivational, the substance of his message was so direct and its tone so negative and angry that it had the opposite effect. Not only did it incense employees, the impact affected the value of the company stock, which dropped 25 percent over 3 days. (8)

Further, in an audit of 4 million e-mail messages on its internal information system, one police department identified 900,000 as containing objectionable, vulgar, racist, sexist, or homophobic language. Some even documented criminal conduct by officers, including illegal stops or searches and buying illegal drugs. (9) As one commission similarly found when it analyzed mobile digital terminal messages in another police department, officers apparently assumed that their inappropriate electronic transmissions were not available for review by supervisors or that the substance of their messages was not permanently maintained in that "great computer in the sky." (10)

ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGIES

What can an organization do to control the stress caused by a rapidly changing electronic world? First, it is important to recognize that stress management often begins with, and is frequently caused by, management expectations and administrative practices. An agency's upper-level managers set the tone for both expected business practices and acceptable stress-management techniques. By their overt actions, e-mail habits, and, sometimes even more telling, their unvocalized but transparent attitudes, they iterate accepted uses of e-mail communication, established business protocols, and an expected level of reliance upon and response to electronic communication within the organization.

These executives also define the ways in which employees may successfully deal with the stress of the electronic organization. In agencies that view e-mail as one highly advanced tool to get the job done but one clearly secondary to effective interpersonal skills and a balanced personal/professional life, the stress on employees may be less pronounced. In other agencies where employees throughout the organization are expected to have an office-connected computer at home because the highest-level executives may send messages at any time of the day or night, a different message, one more personally intrusive and with potentially more stress damage, is clear.

Further, organizations should provide adequate training in computer use and etiquette for managers, as well as for line personnel. Managers often assume that employees, particularly younger persons, possess a strong working knowledge of personal computers and programs. Yet, while many colleges expect a certain level of computer literacy, many noncollege-educated, entry-level employees may lack the expected or desired minimum computer skills. Even higher-level managers who developed in their jobs prior to the consistent use of computers may lack more than basic computer and e-mail skills due to the commitments of their current jobs and demands as they rose in the organization.

Proper training, then, becomes the issue. As part of the new employee orientation process, managers should assess the recruits' computer skills. They should build agency training around the basic needs for each position. This approach avoids boring new employees with a regurgitation of lessons they already have learned and demonstrated and ensures a minimum level of computer skills for all personnel.

Additionally, as employees advance into and through management ranks, an organization should identify and reward expected computer competencies. Agencies should ensure that ranking officers also have professionally adequate computer skills, just as they establish minimum qualification levels for personnel in other areas, such as firearms and fitness.

Finally, the organization should clearly define accepted e-mail practices and electronic etiquette. Employees should understand the rules of computer use within their agency and be held accountable for complying with those rules. A variety of Web sites offer helpful advice and practical guidelines for enhancing electronic communication.

CONCLUSION

Agencies should continue to emphasize the importance of effective interpersonal, nonelectronic communication between managers, supervisors, and employees. Many agency administrators have allowed the computer to replace good management communications skills. Yet, to place this tool in the proper perspective, the agency has to make its position on interpersonal communication clear: interpersonal communication is an issue on which managers are held responsible, rewarded, and, if inadequate or inappropriate, disciplined. In personnel issues, and particularly in matters of discipline, evaluation, and job performance, agencies expect to communicate personally with their employees, who, in turn, are expected to communicate issues of a personal nature one-on-one with their managers.

The backbone of any organization remains its effective employees who are made more productive, but not supplanted, by an up-to-date electronic and technological infrastructure.

Tremendous strides in technology significantly have impacted the way organizations, including law enforcement agencies, function and communicate. The rapid expansion and use of e-mail have enhanced an organization's ability to communicate effectively and expeditiously. At the same time, an over-reliance on e-mail as a primary means of communication can hurt interpersonal communication within an agency and magnify the stress of its employees. Proper individual and organizational efforts can ensure the effectiveness of electronic communication while minimizing its harm.

10 Tips for Successful E-mail Business Correspondence

* Maintain professionalism in e-mail correspondence as in any other business correspondence; business etiquette does not change when a message is digitized.

* Respond to e-mail promptly, even if only to acknowledge initial receipt and that a more detailed response will follow.

* Check e-mail frequently, but do not allow it to interrupt other scheduled tasks.

* Read and reread e-mails for quality, tone, grammar, spelling, and punctuation before sending them. Do not rely solely on spell check to catch errors.

* Remember that e-mail is not private correspondence and easily can become public without intent or consent. And, it is a permanent record of written communication.

* Do not use business e-mail for jokes or frivolous messages.

* Deal with personal or sensitive issues in person, not through an impersonal electronic medium.

* Use business e-mail as a means to get information to a number of people in an expeditious fashion and to quickly involve others, but do not send e-mails to persons who do not have a need to receive it.

* Use caution when responding to e-mails. How something is said in e-mail language is just as important as what is said. No matter how emotional the issue or the contents of the e-mail received and the resultant need to verbalize emotions, do not vent and send.

* Treat an e-mail inbox similar to a paper one: review the document, act upon it, and move on.

Bottom Lines of E-mail Stress

Do not continually respond to the computer's ongoing messages.

Screen e-mails that you receive.

Screen e-mails that you send.

Think, read, and reread before you send.

Treat e-mails as you would any other correspondence.

Leave your computer at the office.

Avoid hiding behind your computer.

Remember that your e-mails can come back to haunt you.

Endnotes

(1) "Getting the Message, Loud and Clear," St. Petersburg Times, April 1, 2002, sec. E, p. 9. (2) International Data Corporation, retrieved on March 5, 2002, from http://www.idc.com.

(3) "Drowning in E-mail," St. Petersburg Times, February 18, 2002, sec. E, p. 11.

(4) "Get a Handle on the Technology Overload," St. Petersburg Times, October 28, 2001, sec. G, p. 1.

(5) B. A. Reaves and A. L. Goldberg, U. S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Local Police Departments 1997 (Washington, DC, 2000), iv.

(6) For more information on COMPSTAT, see James Larsen, "STOP CRIME: Systematic Tracking Operation Program Community Reporting Incidents More Effectively," FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, November 2002, 6-8.

(7) John Naisbitt, Megatrends (New York, NY: Warner Books, 1982), 39.

(8) "CEO Stung by E-mail Criticism," St. Petersburg Times, April 6, 2001, sec. E, pp.1 and 6.

(9) "You've Got Hate Mail," Law Enforcement News, March 31, 2001, p. 5.

(10) Report of the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles, California, Police Department (Christopher Commission), July 9, 1991.