The First 100 Years Are The Hardest

COULD 'E-MAIL-FREE' FRIDAYS REPLACE KHAKIS AND KNIT SHIRTS? We all know that e-mail is turning into a huge time and productivity sink, but one lone crusader in Silicon Valley is trying to do something about it. Two months ago Jeremy Burton at Veritas Software decreed that Fridays in his marketing department were to be "e-mail free" -- employees who needed to communicate with each other were instructed to stop by and chat or use the phone. "E-mail is supposed to be this big productivity tool, but it's getting to the point where it is out of control," says Burton, who complains that he was regularly spending two hours a day just dealing with e-mail. The ban applies only to interdepartmental communications and violators are fined $1 per transgression, with the proceeds going toward charity (so far, almost $70 has been collected). Many workers have endorsed the ban, noting the advantages of face-to-face conversations, and Burton says he

Quotes Roundup (Newsscan): "Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!" (Lewis Carroll) "Never retract. Never explain. Get it done and let them howl." (Benjamin Jowett) "We shall not cease from exploration. And at the end of our exploring will be to arrive where we started and to know the place for the first time." (T.S. Eliot) Nowher so besy a man as he ther n¹ as, And yet he semed besier than he was." (Geoffrey Chaucer) "Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance." (Samuel Johnson) "If you can't describe what you are doing as a process, you don't know what you're doing." (W. Edwards Deming)