Old habits? new technologies? the way it is used or implemented? what hinders effective communications at the office? see this story and judge it yourself. Note: source unknown. received it by email circa 2002...

1. COMMUNICATIONS WITHOUT LIMITS!!
Welcome to the era of ...

2.  …rrring 

3. Hello Bob?
Did you review the contract I sent you?

4. -... So it’s finished? You’ll send it to me by e-mail?
- My e-mail address? Frankly, I don’t remember it !!!

5. - Just a minute, let me check.
-NICOOOLE, ...
WHAT’S MY E-MAIL ADDRESS?

6. - No, no, that’s my home e-mail address!
- Listen, I can’t find it.
Let me check and call you back.

7. - Oh!... You’re going for lunch...
OK, I’ll send you the address by fax.
You’ll have it when you get back. OK?

8. OK. So give me your fax number.
- What! You don’t know it?

9. - OK, here’s what we’ll do.
You e-mail me your fax number and I’ll fax you
my e-mail address.
- No, that won’t work.
Wait, I’m getting mixed up...
Let me think...

10. So… Hum… OK… Well… Yeah…

11. - What’s your cell-phone number?
- Oh, your battery is dead ... Mine too...

12. - OK, listen, here’s what we’ll do...
- You charge your cell-phone battery, I’ll call you in a couple of
hours and leave you my e-mail address in your voice mail.

13. - Then you take my e-mail address in your voice mail and you
e-mail me your fax number.
-Then I can fax you my e-mail address.

14. - That’s plan A. Now for plan B!
I send myself an e-mail to see what my e-mail address is
and then I record a message for you in my voice mail....

15. …when you get it, you send me the answer on my pager...
…so then, I send you a fax with my e-mail address.

16. - Complicated?
No, it’s not at all complicated.
-We just need a bit of coordination... and luck...

17. -There’s also a third possibility that’s much simpler: plan C...
You send me the contract directly by express messenger.
-Yeah!... It’s the best plan strategically speaking...

18. - But actually, I have a small question...
…what was I supposed to send you by e-mail?
My e-mail address, my fax number, my cell number,
pager, telephone?

19. - Oh! You don’t remember either.
- It would probably be a good idea to have periodic
bilateral coordination meetings concerning protocols
for internal communications.

20. - But anyway, since your office is at the other end of the corridor,
I’ll come by to pick it up in 2 minutes... OK? Bye!

21. And the moral…:
Thanks to technology, we can now
waste time with an efficiency until
now unimaginable, all in the name of
saving time…