OK, maybe not in your workplace, you may be lucky. But I have seen the following examples way too often.
Email is an asynchronous communication medium. This is great, because the sender values your time and asks you to read and act on it when you have time. Well, not all senders: some send you an email and five minutes later you get a phone call asking whether you got their email. A good response may be: "I don't know. I am working on [...] and will process my emails later."
For me email is a great medium for documented communications, meeting notes, memos, etc, which you can read at you own schedule. It also is great if you work across time zones. If you have something urgent, pick up the phone and talk.
Messengers
Some employers feel that their employees need to be available and respond immediately to certain requests. I am not quite sure what is wrong with using the phone? Maybe because you cannot see whether they are working? But it only means they are online, not necessarily working or available. Do you want them to spend time updating their status whenever they start a task?
Mobile Phones
Depending on the company policy, a mobile phone can be a kind of leash. Some require you to answer it not only when you are not at work, but also during your vacation. If you are in a situation like this, your only escape is to pick a home and holiday location without network coverage.
Everything at once
On one occasion - and never again later on, I guess I had made myself very clear - I had this call on my mobile phone: "I sent you and email, and called you, but your phone was busy. So I contacted you in the messenger, but you did not respond, so I am calling your mobile.".
No, it was not a matter of live or death. I my phone is busy, chance are, I am too. And this may actually become a matter of live or death if it should happen again.
Message Boards
You may have different message boards on systems such as project platforms, training platforms, HR systems, and whatnot. They might send you an email that there is something to check out, but you need to go into these systems to read it.
Adding more channels to your communication does not help the information overflow.
Calendar
Meeting requests are a great way to coordinate with each other, but ...
Working across time zones, I had to defend myself by blocking time
- before 8am for my commute. Conference calls on the train are a no-go in my view, not for some others on my train though
- in the morning to catch up with emails and administrative tasks
- for lunch
- just before I wanted to leave, so I could finish open tasks and leave a clean desk
- after 9pm for my (private) evening
Tasks and Politeness
In MS Outlook you can not only book another person's calendar, but also assign tasks. Of course, these are just requests, and you and accept or decline.
There is not enough time to be polite to everyone, especially if they are not considerate of your time in the first place.
So I would decline meeting requests that collide with an already scheduled appointment without any explanation. If you urgently need me to free up time on my calendar for you, let's talk beforehand.
Any other meeting requests will usually be accepted, or I would politely state the reason for declining.
I would generally decline task requests: I plan my own tasks. If you need me, let's talk about it and I will factor it in.
Meetings and Conference Calls
Be on Time
Be on time, or I may be gone. Otherwise I will be late for my next meeting, and that would not be considerate of other people's time, would it?
No Overrun
We have a hard stop. If anything else needs to be discussed, schedule another meeting. Otherwise I will be late for my next ... well, you already know.
Behave Yourselves
Especially in video conferences you have people catching up with their email, taking phone calls, etc. If you are in a meeting, you are in a meeting. Or if I am the organizer, you may be kicked.
The worst I have seen so far was two people apparently chatting (messengers again) with each other during the video conference. One would type, the other would laugh, and vice-versa. I can see that, you are in a video conference - or rather, you were.
Defending against Distractions
A big first step is to put your email client in offline mode. Then, when you switch tasks, you can catch up. The distracting "you have a new email" messages are gone. I know I was never able to resist opening new messages, so this was kind of a self-disciplinary action.
Shut down your messenger. If you can't, put it on "busy", or even better, enable an automatic reply to tell people to contact you via email of phone.
Divert your desk phone to your mobile. This way, busy is busy.
Now you are down to only two communication channels: email (asynchronous) and a single phone line (synchronous)
Reducing the number of channels reduces your stress level and you will gain more control over your day. Being able to work on a task without interruptions yields better results, fast, and in a relatively relaxed way.
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