A Media Person's Musings

What Your Email Habits Say About You

A new study has come out that reveals that people who respond to emails immediately are not just being polite - it is most likely that they are stressed and overwhelmed by their email. The study carried out by the University of Glasgow said email users come in three categories - relaxed, driven, or stressed. The relaxed people don't let email dominate their lives and take time to concentrate on work without regularly checking their emails. The driven group keep on top of email, but also felt that they could cope with it. The third group, however, reacted negatively to the pressure of email.

Like anyone reading things like this I tried to categorize myself and concluded that I am a 'driven' person who is trying to become more 'relaxed'. My work requires that I write a lot and I find email really distracting when I am trying to focus on an article or press release. I find it hard to recover my train of thought and often get dragged off to complete a 'more urgent' task.

Also, I think my colleagues think of me as rude if I don't respond to them immediately. Indeed I have been chivvied by some for not getting back to them when I have seen the request as not urgent.

Interestingly as the linked article points out " another study, carried out last year, revealed that it takes an average of 64 seconds to recover your train of thought after interruption by email. This means that people who check their email every five minutes waste a whole working day - or 8.5 hours a week - figuring out what they were doing moments before."

It's not unusual for me to receive up to 800 emails a day. The majority of those are inter-company communications. The volume of email is a regular subject of discussion here at Peppercom and we do try to think of ways of reducing it.

I have decided to stop checking my emails so regularly in the hope of becoming more productive. So if I don't get back to you straight away don't be offended!

Talk To Me!

Last week a really good friend of mine was dumped by her boyfriend via a text message. The week before that I tried calling one of my US colleagues at least 15 times without success but was able to get an immediate response when I emailed. This week I had a full blown, humdinger of a row with one of my closest friends...on IM.

What has happened to the art of conversation? I just can't seem to get anyone to talk to me any more. Not only is electronic communication impersonal but it takes so much time to get across your meaning when a simple phone call would suffice.

Most of my friends send me texts and emails rather than phone. I hate it. I can't text anyway - it takes me ages to write what I could say in a couple of seconds. People argue that it is more simple, cost-effective and timesaving. I think it is lazy and sometimes even dangerous. I have got into far more trouble sending emails in anger or sending them to the wrong people.

That said, I think my friend can see what a lazy, thoughtless, classless twerp she was dating and I think that can go some way to making her feel better. And I PHONED my IM-bashed friend to clear the air and everything is fine now.

An Approach of Two Extremes

This week the British headlines have been dominated by the case of Gillian Gibbons, middle- aged schoolteacher who had been working in Sudan for just four months. Her class of schoolchildren had named a teddy bear Muhammad and she was arrested and charged with insulting Islam's Prophet. The charge could have led to her being given 40 lashes and up to six moinths in prison. As it was she was sentenced to 15 days - a ludicrous sentence for someone who obviously had never intentionally done anything to insult Islam's Prophet. In fact the children in her class talked in her defence saying that they had named the toy.

Her lenient sentence sparked outrage and demonstrations in Sudan with crowds calling for her to be executed. Our media in the UK mirrored the shock of the nation at the completely over-the-top reaction of some Sudanese people against an innocent 54 year old primary school teacher.

I have also marveled at the over-reaction but also it got me thinking about the under-reaction of our own government to people who genuinely want to undermine the fabric of our society. Take the case of Abu Hamza al-Mazri the Muslim cleric who preached in a London mosque that terrorist bombers were doing the right thing and all non-believers should be murdered. Under UK law he was allowed freedom of speech even when he expressed the opinion that the space shuttle disaster a divine act calling the Columbia crew 'space thugs' who deserved to die. Under UK law he received over £1million in legal aid. Yes he was finally imprisoned but it took a long time because our justice system works on the principle that everyone is innocent unless proven guilty. Our legal system gives everyone a chance - even if they are very obviously acting illegally according to the laws of our country.

So while everyone is criticising the outrage in Sudan, I am seeing it as totally the opposite end of the scale to our apathetic, politically correct approach to justice. I only hope that some way down the line we can take the middle ground and take the best out of these opposing approaches.

Life is Complete..When You Complete

I haven't blogged in a while so I will keep my comeback short and sweet. Ease in gently!

The reason I haven't been talking about the world around me is that I have, for the first time in my life, bought a house on my own. I have to say it has been the most stressful experience I have ever been through. I really dont understand why it has to be SO hard and complicated but it is and I have done it.

So...tomorrow I complete. People ask me if I am excited. I am. It will be wonderful to put down roots. So wish me luck!!

Great Service Pays

It's very rare you find yourself compelled to write about good things that happen to you in life. It is far easier to criticise from afar or complain about the things that go wrong in the world. Recently I encountered two great examples of amazing customer service that actually resulted from bad experiences that I had with the two organisations concerned.

The first was with the firm Mulberry that makes, among other things, very expensive bags. I was lucky enough to get a Mulberry briefcase as a gift and of course I used it all the time. However, after a relatively short time the leather tie on the fastener wore down and it became impossible to close. Also the strap broke and I was on the verge of throwing it away when my colleague Sophie said that I should get it repaired. I was convinced that it would probably cost as much to repair as it would to replace it and reluctantly sent it off for a quote. I didn't hear from Mulberry for a couple of weeks so chased them up to see if they had received it. They came back saying that they had and would be back to me in due course. I then completely forgot about it until one day a box appeared on my desk. When I opened it I found my briefcase completely restored. Small things that I wouldn't have expected to be repaired (such as a tear in the lining) had been taken care of. Inside was an envelope that I assumed was going to be a bill. I was just getting into high dudgeon about the fact that they hadn't given me a quote and had just ploughed ahead with the job when I was surprised to find a letter apologising for the trouble I had with the bag. Furthermore there was to be no charge for the repair. I was stunned.

The next instance came on my recent trip to New York when I stayed at the Hotel Roger Williams in Mid-Town Manhattan. It is a very friendly, affordable modern, boutique hotel that is in a perfect location - five minutes from the office so I was pleased to have found what I thought was a complete gem. Things didn't go so smoothly with my stay. I had asked for a room with a bath but found I only had a shower so had to move rooms which was a pain. Then over the course of two nights I was bitten to death by something. When I spoke to our office manager Lee he told me that New York as a whole was suffering from an invasion of bed bugs...I was horrified. When you look them up on the Internet you will see what I mean.

I spoke to the hotel's duty manager who assured me that they didn't have bed bugs and had all the right processes to check the rooms regularly and that I must have been bitten by a mosquito or a spider. But they did move me to another room and quarantined my old one and I felt reassured enough not to check out. I didn't get eaten in the new room but life still didn't run smoothly. Normally I am 'green' and don't expect clean sheets every day but in light of what had happened I thought it best to err on the side of caution and request for the bed to be made up. It wasn't. So I called down to request that it was. The front desk staff were great, apologised and sent someone up straight away. He came with towels and not sheets and pushed back when I asked him to change the bed. He was so insistent on hotel policy that I ended up having to show him my bug bites (horrible sight) to convince him I wasn't going to back down. When I checked out the next day I was adamant that I wouldn't be staying there again no matter how perfect the location.

Yesterday I had a call from the hotel manager who had heard from the front desk of my woes and called to apologise. I was really impressed. Being a typical Brit I hadn't made a formal complaint. I just paid my bill and left vowing not to return. However the Hotel Roger Williams obviously values its customers and she listened to my sorry story and then made the case for the hotel without making me feel that I was being petty. She staked her career on the fact that there were no bed bugs in the hotel and I believed her. She said that she wanted me to come back to hotel and compensated me by taking some money off my bill. This was totally unexpected, much appreciated and it totally turned my perception of the hotel. Of course it was great to get a discount but it was more the fact that they had taken the time to contact me when I hadn't even complained formally.

So now whenever I buy a new bag it will be a Mulberry and whenever I stay in New York (which is frequently) I will stay at The Hotel Roger Williams!

Golden Goldie

Last week a friend of mine who heads up a VC firm invited me to a cocktail reception his company was hosting at the exclusive central london private members club Home House. We had been talking about Peppercom doing some publicity for one of the films he had invested in and I saw this as a great opportunity to get to meet some of the movers and shakers in the industry.

To my surprise and delight the event was put on for Goldie Hawn who was promoting a script that she had co-written. Everyone was introduced to her gradually and when it got around to being my turn I felt suddenly self-conscious and a bit of a fraud so I told Goldie that I was delighted to meet her and that I was of absolutely no use to her bearing in mind her objectives for the evening. I did add (cheekily) that I was a crack PR if she ever needed any help on that front ;-).

Goldie was a true superstar. She invited me to sit down next to her and have a good chat. When pictures were taken of us she shared some tips on what works best on the camera. Then we all went for dinner and had a great evening.

Goldie is everything you think she is going to be. I have met some famous people (naming no names) who are nothing like their on-screen personas and have been diva-like at best and surly and arrogant at worst. Goldie is true Hollywood royalty - funny, elegant, beautiful and kind.

McCartney Millions

So today Heather Mills McCartney will find out how much she will get out of her sensational divorce settlement from Beatles legend Sir Paul MacCartney. The press speculates that she will receive £50M. Right from the start of their relationship cynics stressed that she was just marrying for money. Despite her protests that she married for love it's pretty clear from their very short marriage that she may well have done what the critics suggest.

65 year old Sir Paul is worth an estimated £825Million so some would argue that £50M is a 'drop in the ocean' to him. And I guess it is. But what exactly did Heather Mills MacCartney do to 'earn' £50M? She produced a child for sure but cynics would argue that she gave birth to a rock tight insurance policy.

I find such vast sums being bandied about quite distasteful. I hope that whatever she gets she puts to good use. She, like Sir Paul, has worked for many charities. Let's hope that this gives her the security she needs to continue giving back.

Remembering Vicky

I seem to be writing a lot about Steve Cody recently (can you tell I am a fan?!)! Well last weekend Mr Cody was pursuing another personal goal – he ran a half marathon in New York and did it in a great time too. The very same weekend we had the Great North Run which is the UK’s most famous half marathon. This year it was a very special occasion for Adam Chataway who is a friend and client. Adam was supposed to have been getting married that weekend but his fiancée Vicky was tragically killed last October as she cycled to work. Adam, Vicky’s family and his family, refusing to let her light be extinguished, decided to write another chapter in her life so that her enthusiasm and zest for life would never be forgotten. He and his friends (a group of truly amazing people) decided to raise money for a cause that Vicky believed in passionately – getting fresh drinking water to poverty stricken villages in Ethiopia. Vicky’s Water Project was born, a target of £226,000 was set and the first donation was the £10.88 that Vicky had in her pocket when she died. Over the last year Adam and his friends and family have been fundraising via many events: I wrote about a poker night that we had for the charity in my blog a while back.

The Great North Run marked the culmination of the programme. It was the most fitting platform as Vicky and Adam had run it many times before. Adam, his father the famous Olympic athlete Sir Chris Chattaway (who was Roger Bannister’s pacemaker) and 190 of their friends and family ran in honour of Vicky, raising enough money to smash the target. Furthermore the TV coverage featured a segment of film that had been shot in Africa when Adam, his parents and Vicky’s Parents went to Ethiopia to visit the villages that they were to be helping. It was incredibly moving to see what we had all been involved in actually coming to fruition and I felt very privileged to have been a very very small part of it. Adam even ran a half marathon in Ethiopia with Haile Gebrselassie who went on to smash the world record at this weekend’s Berlin Marathon. He was wearing a blue ribbon in memory of Vicky and I like to think that she gave him the extra incentive to break the record.

It’s not often that I am genuinely in awe of someone but Adam has to be the bravest man I have ever met. I cannot express how much I admire him. He has worked tirelessly and unselfishly to ensure Vicky has a real and fitting legacy. It goes to show that true love endures.

Following the Dream

Steve Cody, the co-founder of Peppercom has a hidden talent! He is a stand-up comedian. Recently he decided that there were a number of things that he wanted to achieve before he got much older (and he is pretty old!). One of those things was to write and perform stand-up routines. As soon as I got off the flight to New York on my latest trip I hotfooted it across Manhattan to watch him perform. He was actually really good. Some of the folks here at Peppercom Europe asked me if I felt strange watching him in a different and pretty scary environment but I didn’t. He was, as he is in business, the consummate professional. His routine was brilliantly constructed, practiced, polished and very funny.

One of the many things I did when I was in New York was meet with five bright young interns. They were ‘meeting the management’ so that we could tell them about our backgrounds, answer their questions and generally give some advice. One of my pearls of wisdom (apart from ‘there is no such thing as a free lunch’) was that if you want to achieve something don’t be the one to put barriers in the way by thinking that you are not good enough or that you not experienced enough. I truly believe that you have the power to make anything happen if you want it enough and are prepared to apply yourself.

One of the great things about Peppercom is its entrepreneurial, go-getting spirit and a culture that encourages challenging existing practices and creating new offerings in line with the ever-evolving media landscape. Steve is the embodiment of that spirit and culture. I don’t know of many CEOs that would take stand-up and improvisation classes every week to follow a long held dream. Just like with Peppercom it doesn’t stop there: This Christmas Steve is following another dream - climbing Mount Kilimanjaro with his son Chris (ex-Peppercom Europe intern).

Facebook Furore

Today the news was dominated by a story about employees' use of social networking sites while at work. Many large corporations have banned their staff from using sites like Facebook and MySpace within working hours. Now Trade Unions have come out to argue the case for the employees and promoting their rights to being able to access the sites in their lunch or break times.

This is, in my opinion, an old story. Now I am showing my age! When email first became widely used we had the same debate. Employers feared that their staff would spend all day on the Internet emailing their friends and not doing their jobs. Some companies even banned personal email. Now the story is very different.

I believe in networking passionately. Already through Facebook I have reconnected with people who I will do business with so I feel no guilt about checking it through the day and I am sure the same will happen with my colleagues. While these sites are a novelty they may well distract people a bit in the short term. However the novelty will wear off and then the site will become a resource (good or bad) to whoever is using it. For me it is great: I get invited to events and have become part of a connected community of PR people and journalists.

I am sure that if I banned the use of these sites in my office my business would suffer; not only in terms of morale (everyone is an adult after all) but also in terms of new opportunities. To really understand the way the digital world is going you have to be part of it.