Every Wednesday, workers at Liverpool City Council are told to use the phone or speak face-to-face with their colleagues instead of communicating by e-mail.

Chief Executive David Henshaw says that e-mail slows up processes at work, "especially if they spend hours typing in e-mails when picking up the phone would have got it done in 30 seconds."

The 5,000 employees at the city council send a total of 40,000 e-mails a day.

Are you swamped with e-mails? Would an e-mail ban help you get your job done? Can it really work in practice?

This Talking Point has now closed. Read a selection of your comments below.

Hail to the e-mail!

Anon, Australia

E-mails have made it much easier for me to participate in the workforce. I am deaf so that means I struggle with the phone. E-mails are a popular and great alternative means of communication and no one seems to mind using it with me. Also I've had roles which needed me to communicate with overseas colleagues - it beats the time difference. Hail to the e-mail!
Anon, Australia

I work for a company where we send e-mail for just about everything in the office. I guess it just depends on the business because at my company we are on computers all day long so we see the e-mail and can respond to it quickly but we still can call or I can speak to my supervisor face to face if I have a problem that e-mail alone cannot solve.
Michelle, USA

I work for a big company with offices spread over a large area. Before e-mails, if we wanted to send the same document to a number of people we had to take it to be photocopied, address internal envelopes and then walk them to these people. We would stop and chat with colleagues along the way and it would take the good part of a morning just to deliver them. Compare to a few seconds to attach the document to an e-mail and send it.
Gill, UK

Should we really be taking their latest proposal seriously?

David Howes, UK

Coming from a council that managed to bankrupt itself back in the eighties partly due to its expensive low tech methods of communication (constantly overusing taxies to attend meeting with people etc) should we really be taking their latest proposal seriously?
David Howes, UK

I think a lot of people are missing the point here. They want to cut down on USELESS e-mailing. Obviously if it is to keep an electronic record, or to communicate with people half a world away, then it is not useless. The waste of time use of e-mail is when you send messages that are able to be delivered verbally to someone who is not too far away about trivial or non-work related matters. Like most things in life, common sense needs to be applied, but it ain't so common as it used to be, and humans are wonderful at avoiding work.
Liam, Australia

Impossible to ban. If a ban on e-mails then have a ban on phone calls, letter writing or meetings for a day. It's typical that this is a UK Government department. Who else could make such a silly suggestion? Better to teach them to type quicker and generally communicate better and while they are at it stop all the tea breaks!
Stephen J. Whitworth, Philippines

I can't imagine life without e-mail

Leslie, USA

I run my own business and I can't imagine life without e-mail. I get layouts and estimate requests, send estimates, and coordinate logistics almost entirely via e-mail. It's the phone which takes up more unproductive time!
Leslie, USA

It appears that only one contributor has grasped the importance of e-mail communications: it creates a written record of a communication.
Jurgen W Schulze, USA

E-mailing has gradually become part and parcel of the life of most people. So, a ban is not a solution and would serve as a huge disadvantage to most.
AO Zubairu, Nigeria

The fact remains that e-mail is better than a letter as it is instantaneous, and has the advantage over the telephone of being non obtrusive. If someone calls you about something then you have to write the details down whereas e-mails contain all the data already laid out, and are easy to keep a record of. Also, a to-the-point e-mail is surely better than a call or conversation that might drift and thus take longer.
Emily, UK

I already impose a two day abstention on myself

Ashley, England

I already impose a two days per week abstention from Outlook on myself. These are the most productive days I have. Trouble is I have to look sometime! About 10% of my email is worth the trouble.
Ashley, England

Were memos any different during the late 80s and early 90s? We never had a ban on those.
Simon, UK

E-mail is the best way to reach shift workers who log on at different times of the day and night. Managers are often not in their offices or are at meetings so an e-mail will get to them eventually.
Peter Bradshaw, UK

So 5,000 people send 40,000 e-mails per day: that's eight e-mails per head per day. They must type really slowly.
Nigel Barnes, UK

Surely the best way to improve office efficiency would be to ban web access rather than e-mail? Think of the time I'm wasting by submitting this!
Nick, UK

People need training on when it makes sense to talk

John, UK

I communicate with colleagues globally and e-mail can help where time differences come into play. However lots of my colleagues regularly e-mail someone down the corridor rather than talk face to face. People need training on when it makes sense to talk rather than e-mail. People need to be less reliant on e-mail but the idea of having to enforce this by a no e-mail day in the office is a bit sad.
John, UK

I use an incoming e-mail as an 'at desk detector'. Whoever has sent it is likely to be at their desk so I immediately phone them with my reply. It works!
Simon Mallett, UK

I receive on average 100 e-mails at work a day. If I average two minutes each to read and react - that's over three hours a day before I even do any work. A phone call is much better and you know the recipient understands your request.
R Crowther, UK

I despise the culture of e-mailing

Rob, The Netherlands

After embracing the technology when it first appeared, I am now beginning to despise the culture of e-mailing. How absurd is it to send e-mails to someone who is sitting opposite you in the same office? In the end, isn't e-mailing just a way of avoiding work in some situations? The recipient can still choose whether to reply, so the whole idea of fast communication goes out of the window.
Rob, The Netherlands

Most councils already operate a "Don't answer the phone" policy on Mondays - Friday anyway so this is just an extension of it....
Peter, UK

E-mail is for people like me who don't want to speak to others

Basa, UK

E-mail is great for people like me who don't really want to speak to others or see them. It gets the job done, isn't that the most important thing?
Basa, UK

What a stupid idea; why not make people write on slate as well that was much more fun? Why do we waste time trying to phone someone until we finally get through and they have gone home?
John, England

People can only receive and deal with one telephone call at a time. You can receive 100 e-mails in the same time without ringback or answer phones. Long live the e-mail.
Anthony, Reading, UK

Ban e-mail?? What next, ban computers? This is daft. E-mail is the best way to communicate with my colleagues in China and India. The phone lines are dodgy, and there is only a one hour overlap in office hours with China! Anyway, how else would I get to hear the latest jokes?!
Jon Cooper, UK

I have recently changed jobs and now work for local government. I am appalled at the amount of time and paper wasted because people will NOT use e-mail. E-mail is quick and efficient. Provided a balance is maintained there is no problem.
Chris, UK

My line manager was one of those who preferred to have, in his words "a little chat" rather than send e-mails. The upside for him was that he could make poor decisions and later disown them, safe in the knowledge there was no evidence to the contrary. It was only by sending him e-mail confirmations of his verbal instructions that I could cover my back. It's sad that such silliness is occasionally required, but such is life.
Anon, UK

My workplace banned accessing personal e-mail at work, but all it means is I fetch it on my WAP phone, or by logging in on my palm computer over my mobile. They'll never stop it!
James McGowan, UK

Always the opportunity for bullying to take place via e-mail

Anonymous, England

Common sense at last. At my former workplace there was always the opportunity for bullying to take place via e-mail as manager(s) sitting one or two desks away with the social skills of a paperweight couldn't say what they had to say direct to my face. For the minutes of meetings it's a good idea, but replacing verbal communication with typing wastes the same amount of time.
Anonymous, England

I have found that since I have had the use of e-mails at work that things are actually more efficient. If you chat to someone on the phone, other things talked about (the weather, last Saturday's results etc). E-mail is by far the most efficient communication tool at work and they want to cut it down! Then again councils are not actually known for their efficiency!
Jason, Manchester, England

Would like to contribute, but too many e-mails to read.
Robert, UK

Technology is there to be used not to be scared of. E-mails have their place as do phone conversations and meetings. People work in different ways and use their resources to their requirements. Encourage this, don't stamp on it.
Nath, UK

There are some people here who would get withdrawal symptoms if they had to go without e-mail for an hour, let alone a day. Which would be highly amusing... I say ban it for a week!
Martin, England

All a ban would do is make me ratty two days a week

Mel, London

In order to get my job done I need electronic confirmation of requests from around the building. I have to cc: and bcc: people into mails. All a ban would do is pile double the work up for the following day and therefore reduce productivity and make me ratty for two days a week.
Mel, London

Just think how much 40,000 phone calls would cost.
AW Butler, UK

E-mails let you leave something for someone's attention when they're not there; they allow you to attach all sorts of information; they provide a written record of what was said and when; plus you can send URLs in them. I'm NOT going back to handwritten memos. Yes verbal communication has its uses and we all use it.
Phil, UK

An e-mail can be sent to a whole team at once, can be read at the receiver's convenience, all parties get a concise copy of the details, and electronic signatures can legally be used. In my open-plan office, by e-mail I also have the ability to have a confidential 'conversation' without having to leave the room or whisper into my telephone.
Richard, UK