Council bans email

Liverpool City Council chiefs are banning internal emails once a week to get their employees talking to each other like they did in the good old days before technology.

A council spokesman said that the ban on internal emails was made after realising that its 6,000 computer-based staff sent each other 40,000 messages a day.

Email-free Wednesdays would "liberate" staff, as well as reduce buck-passing and time wasting, claim the council.

The chiefs think that people are retreating behind emails and are simply forwarding tricky questions to colleagues so they never get solved.

"We must all look at which form of communication is best to solve a problem, be it via email, telephone or in person," the spokesman said. "Emails can help staff to communicate faster, but there are times when it would be quicker simply to pick up the phone," he added.

The ban is an experiment and workers who flout it will not be punished but will be frowned upon by managers.

Staff will still be able to send external emails on email-free Wednesdays. Council managers have also insisted that the ban has nothing to do with concerns over workers sending personal messages.