Oz firm bans emails in office for better productivity

Two workplaces in Australia have banned emails in their offices as a means to communicate with its employees.

The CEO of two Illawarra clubs has taken the bold step of not only ditching his work email account but also convincing employees to do the same and return to the halcyon days of face-to-face conversations and chats on the phone.

CEO Matt O'Hara reckons that his working life is sweeter as a result.

As boss of Oak Flats Bowling Club and the Illawarra Yacht Club, the 41-year-old said that he had been spending as much as 25 hours a week sorting through, reading and replying to emails, News.com.au reported.

Now it's more like 45 minutes a fortnight and then only to scan his inbox for anything critical and delete the rest.

He said that unplugging staff from their keyboards had improved productivity and - with no email to keep them busy - employees were more likely to spend more time on the floor with patrons.

They were also more likely to leave on time at the end of the day.

And while convincing other companies to eschew email and pick up the phone hadn't been easy in some cases, it meant they now spent five minutes on the phone rather than an hour sending emails back and forth to reach the same conclusion.