Read the article and write in the correct letter, A – F, for the missing sentences. A. This is where we first find out about decisions that have been made, deals struck and the direction being taken. B. In the past few months, 290 employees at a government department have been sacked via their office intranet, while a car equipment firm laid off the workforce by email. C. Then suddenly you send an email to the wrong person. D. They are typical of the average employee who sends 34 emails a day. E. Sending mail CC has only made it worse. F. Two letters were attached, one saying her contract had been cancelled, the other that she should return any work items. Clicking the habit Email makes many things so much easier – including making someone redundant. (1) __________. In the case of Helen Saxon-Jones, she was checking her inbox from home one day when she read the subject line: “This email is only to be opened during office hours.” But she clicked on it anyway. (2)___________. Unable to believe it, the 29-year-old, who had been working as a project development officer with a charity, took the case to a tribunal. She finally received £12,000 in compensation from her former employer. But these bosses who dismiss workers by email aren’t necessarily evil, cowardly people – they’re mostly people just like you and me who have developed the habit of using email too much. (3)___________. They meet people and exchange email addresses rather than phone numbers. They email CVs to prospective employers. In a survey of workers last week, almost half admitted they email the person sitting next to them to avoid making verbal contact, and one in five of us uses email just to gossip about work colleagues. Regardless of the field in which you work, it is a safe bet to guess that your first course of action on any given workday is to log on to your PC and begin checking your inbox. (4) ____________. We send a question and become offended if the recipient does not respond within hours. We have become slaves to the inbox, dependent on a constant flow of typed communication. So type-type-type, even when it is unnecessary. Workers type up their every thought and send off emails with tremendous inaccuracy or complete pointlessness. (5)__________. We are copied in on emails that do not directly affect us in the vague interests of keeping everyone ‘in the loop’. Email allows us to continue to work at home. Constant access leads to a compulsion to keep the communication going. You’re at home, and there’s nothing good on TV, so you decide to have a glass of wine and do a little work. As you review your inbox, you start firing off responses. (6) _____________. You don’t want them to read it and the next thing you know you’re sending even more emails to try and undo the damage. Another round of emails has begun!