This Friday at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center's campus in Plymouth, Mass., hospital employees can expect zero emails from co-workers thanks to the hospital's new "Email Free Friday" program, reports CBS Boston.
Email can cause significant distractions from work, and an internal survey at the hospital found hospital employees were overwhelmed by unnecessary emails, according to the report. Due to those findings, the hospital implemented Email Free Friday.
The new program discourages employees from sending internal emails; external emails are still permitted, according to the report. By eliminating internal emails, BID-Plymouth CIO Ron Rutherford hopes employees will engage in more face-to-face communication.
"On Fridays, the thought is that folks won't send emails, and instead they will get up and walk down the hall and talk to their peers rather than sit behind their desk," Mr. Rutherford told CBS Boston.
The program may also help employees be more productive. Carol Burns, chief clinical dietician at BID-Plymouth, told CBS Boston that continuously receiving emails can be frustrating. "You set aside time to work on a project or do something, and instead, you are reading 37 emails about things that aren't essential," she said.
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