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Technology Sanity Check #307
The Mailroom
The Demise of Human Connection
by Ray Strackbein
Decades ago, corporations potential managers and executives started in the mailroom. Although the new hires complained about performing such menial work, working in the mailroom made sense.
What better way to learn how a company works than by working in the mailroom? Sorting and delivering the mail was a great way to learn about the people in the company and how they were connected. The mail
staff learned the names, titles, and location of the chief players. When they delivered the mail, they connected. They had conversations with everyone. They saw everyone's desks and the personalities
they exposed. They got to know the essence of the company.
Technology has replaced the mailroom. E-mail, fax machines, and the Internet allow people to bypass the mail to communicate.
Because of improved technology, there is no real way to learn about the connections in an organization and how that organization works.
Another similar position is the telephone operator. The telephone operator answers the telephone and routes calls to the proper person in the proper department. The telephone operator is a generalist who
soon learns the structure of the organization. She is the first person people -- customers, prospects, vendors, or the press -- talk to when they call an organization. It takes powerful listening and
dispatching skills. She knows how the organization is performing as well as what callers need.
Technology has replaced the telephone operators in an organization. Technology has blessed us with the automated announcement that the call is very important as well as the message that the caller is
abandoned to his own devices, to "press 1 now" to receive excellent customer service. "Your wait time is approximately 30 mintues."
Where is the human connection for either employees or customers?
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Are your new technologies connecting you to your employees and your customers or are your technologies disconnecting you?
Copyright © Ray Strackbein
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