The Chewbacca E-mail Defence

After four years of University and working in Industry I have come to notice a strange phenomenon which seems to afflict everyone from the lowest administrator to the highest director with equal virility. All of us have experienced the moment where all eyes turn in your direction on the revelation that an expectation has not been achieved or a target has been missed. Whether its coursework past its deadline, or a long overdue action point from a rather tedious meeting there is a stock standard defence which seems the commercial embodiment of the 'Get out of jail free card'.

"I sent you an email". A few small words so innocently placed, but covers all manner of sins. I don't really understand how it is that a Director on the Warpath or a Lecturer hell-bent on docking marks can be so easily subdued by the timely delivery of the phrase. Whether the purveyor of the excuse is telling the truth or not it I have seen devastating delivery causing instant disarray in those who are turning critical eyes.

On more than one occasion I have seen students excused timely coursework submission due to perceived uncertainty surrounding the delivery of electronic mail. I have even used the excuse myself to cover tardiness when contacting clients at work, professing that "my email didn't send the first time". And of course who could forget the classic Sales Rep tactic of insisting that they speak to the intended recipient in person, just to check if they got that email containing "A really interesting offer".

In an age where E-mail is ubiquitous and largely seen as superior to paper mail, are we really that uncertain as to the quality of the delivery mechanism? Surely if there was genuinely this much doubt as to whether Business-critical documents will arrive when we click 'Send' then we would save some of our raging contempt for Royal Mail, and vent it at E-mail providers instead.

Perhaps it is the lack of per-send cost associated with most E-mail services which lowers our expectations, or perhaps we enjoy the dance of uncertainty surrounding our merry distribution of scores of emails every day. Of course who would forgo the amusing back and forth whilst trying to dictate an E-mail address over the telephone prompting 4 failed emails and one Nigerian scam respondent before finally getting the message through.

Either way it makes me wonder how long before we start to demand more from our best electronic friend. With so much of Business and Personal life depending on timely and safe delivery of Electronic Mail, I think it might be time to iron out the kinks and fire some of these incompetent digital postmen.

There are even some hailing alternatives to E-mail altogether. Could RSS really be a replacement?

PS for those of you pondering the relation to Chewbacca, see this video for a likeness to many a meeting where the E-Mail diversion defence has been employed...