The folks at FolioMag managed to get hold of the memo from the CIO, Andrew Cawood.

A Message from Andrew Cawood

In December, the Nielsen Executive Council (NEC) held an Act Now! event to review suggestions from across the business that would eliminate bureaucracy and inefficiency. Beginning Thursday, January 29, we will implement one of the approved recommendations: removing the “Reply to All” functionality from Microsoft Outlook.

We have noticed that the “Reply to All” functionality results in unnecessary inbox clutter. Beginning Thursday we will eliminate this function, allowing you to reply only to the sender. Responders who want to copy all can do so by selecting the names or using a distribution list.

Eliminating the “Reply to All” function will:

• Require us to copy only those who need to be involved in an e-mail conversation
• Reduce non-essential messages in mailboxes, freeing up our time as well as server space

This is one of the many changes being implemented as a result of the NEC Act Now! initiative. If you have any suggestions on how we can continue to improve the way we work, please send your comments to Nielsen

Andrew Cawood
Chief Information Officer

We are obsessed by employee productivity in this office, but can’t help thinking this edict goes too far – isn’t it down to individuals to use technology responsibly, rather than having functionality taken away!?

These folks offer a couple of 10 minute ‘at your desk’ lessons as part of their employee productivity video-course which tackles how to write emails and how to deal with email amongst many other things. Sounds like you’re being taught to suck eggs – but do you know what, Mr Cawood could probably distribute the lesson to his team. Nobody is taught how to use email – and when used properly it is a lifesaver. When it’s not – it’s a nightmare fo all.

So – back to the subject – what button would you disable and why?! Leave a comment below.

Related articles

• Nielsen Deletes Reply-To-All Button (techcrunch.com)
• Nielsen Group Hopes to Be Less Functional Than They Already Are (jossip.com)