Overwhelmed by e-mail: one department fights back

Everyone bemoans that which they can’t live without: e-mail (See my posts of July 14, 2005 about inefficiencies from e-mail interruptions and June 5, 2006 about the stress they cause.). Can a law department legislate relief? Ponder this fiat: “One law department has a rule that lawyers will not log on to their e-mail accounts two hours before or two hours after normal working hours in the jurisdiction in which they are located.”

Aside from wondering how anyone can enforce such a rule, as cited in Law Dept. Quarterly, Vol. 2, May-July 2006 at 17, I just don’t follow how it helps. If you don’t want to peek, you won’t. If the rule prohibited lawyers from sending e-mail, then at least the volleys and clicks would drop.