Most bosses are overwhelmed by their inboxes – waking up at 5 a.m. just to get a head start on the endless stream of emails. But Airbnb, the CEO of Brian Chesky, can hardly remember the last time he wrote an email himself. He believes that everyone in the workplace should use their inboxes less. In his words, “not too frequently.”
Chesky to Time says: 'I don't know if I'll write an email in a week. I reply to emails every day because people send them to me. But I try to remember when I last drafted an email myself.'
What is his opinion on emails? “I just think they’re hardly as good as any other form of communication,” he says. “Emails are topic-based, while text messages are person-to-person. Text messages are much faster and also provide more context. You feel a deeper connection. There’s no subject line in text messages. When you receive a text message, responding to it doesn’t make you feel like you’re at work.”
On the contrary, he says that emails make people feel as if they are at work. This is also why he ranks emails among the worst forms of communication; moreover, he prefers to send text messages to his 8,200 employees, as it is more likely to get through to them in that way.
"I truly believe that text messages provide a faster response than emails. For example, notifications are directly sent to your phone. If I have any questions, my general approach is to try calling people, sending them text messages, or meeting in person," added this billionaire boss.
"I think the best ways of communication are, in order: first, face-to-face; second, Zoom; third, text messages; and fourth, probably emails."
Work communication after work: Some CEO encourage it, while Generation Z and millennials dislike it.
For Chesky, sending text messages feels more personal and warm. However, for employees, it doesn't really matter where the information comes from; as long as it's a message from the boss, they still perceive it as part of their work.
However, he doesn't consider this to be a problem.
“Everyone has the right to run a company in the way they want.” Chesky said.
He said that he would try his best not to send text messages when he thinks the other person is with their family, unless there is an emergency. However, he also admitted that his balance between work and life is probably more “mixed” than that of “ordinary people”.
Moreover, Chesky is not the only one who doesn't mind mixing work and rest time. CEO.
The founder and CEO of a popular healthy fast-food chain in London, Farmer J, told Fortune that he has never activated the “work from home” auto-reply setting—even during his honeymoon.
Nespresso For the UK and Ireland business, CEO Anna Lundstrom also applies. Fortune indicates that her employees can contact her at any time through multiple platforms, ranging from Teams, email, to WhatsApp and LinkedIn.
“I think I always prefer to know something rather than not knowing at all,” she explained, adding that from the moment she woke up, her phone has been within reach.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi even insists that sending emails on weekends is just "part of working hard" – and he expects his employees to respond quickly even during their downtime. In the podcast " Diary of a CEO ", he said, "If I don't receive a response on Saturday, I'll send an email with a question mark on Sunday: What's going on?"
After all, Chesky and other CEO may both prefer text messages because they allow for quicker responses. However, if you do this too frequently outside of working hours, you're likely to receive a notice of termination.
Research by the recruitment platform Reed has found that a quarter of millennial employees would resign if their bosses contacted them outside of working hours; among those aged 18 to 34, 59% are willing to seek new employment in order to protect a balance between work and life.
