More email advice from children and family development minister Lesley du Toit: writing to her executive at the more reasonable hour of 6:48 in the evening, Ms. du Toit states "I have previously made this request and want to make it yet again...hopefully for the last time. Please do not e-mail me documents to see or approve. Send them through the required channels for me to read and approve." And what's the reason for this policy, you may wonder? "E-mail is not secure" - a demonstrable fact. And, evidently, Ms. du Toit has been working to find ways of managing her workload - with this being one of them. The following is a complete copy of that email.
From: du Toit, Lesley MCF:EX
Sent: Mon, October 9, 2006 6:48 PM
To: Ahmed, Sarf MCF:EX; Boon, Les N MCF:EX; Wilkinson, Craig W MCF:EX; Cunningham, Peter C MCF:EX; Dellert, Karen D MCF:EX; Doyle, Patrick J MCF:EX; du Toit, Lesley MCF:EX; Eamer, Chuck MCF:EX; Foxcroft, Debra MCF:EX; Gleeson, Kelly T PAB:EX; Hayman, Douglas MCF:EX; Hughes, Doug J MCF:EX; Knox, Donna L MCF:EX; MacMillan, Karen MCF:EX; Markwart, Alan MCF:EX; McCallum, Nikki MCF:EX; Sieben, Mark MCF:EX
Subject: E-mails
Dear All
I have previously made this request and want to make it yet again…..hopefully the last time.
Please do not e-mail me documents to see or approve. Send them through the required channels for me to read and approve. If there is urgency, then indicate that to Jason.Please let your staff teams know this so that they do not send me documents by e-mail.E-mail is not secure, plus I would prefer to see documents that have been signed off by you (when they are comingf rom someone in your team).
If it is just for my info, send to Jason or Karen to print out.If it is for my official sign off/approval please send through the official channel.[Documents should reach me at least two days before they are needed at the ministers office or your office. The ministers needs them two days ahead of his deadline. I do understand that these deadlines are not always possible, but lets keep trying.]
You may want to check on what you or your team have e-mailed me by way of documents this last week, because I am not giving them my attention until I receive them through the appropriate channels.
If I ask you to e-mail me a document for very good reason then it is of course OK. IF it is an emergency, then indicate that and use e-mail by all means.
Please remember not to hit the reply to all button unless essential for each person to see. Sometimes an e-mail discussion with me is appropriate and I will respect your judgement on this. We have been doing well on cutting back on e-mails generally, so thank you.
Please do raise this at the retreat if you have any difficulties with this approach.
Thanks
Lesley
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"Do as I say, not as I do"!!!
How unfair of a Deputy Minister to ask for things to be done in accordance with how every other bureaucracy runs in Canada!
It is unthinkable in the federal public service to send a Deputy a document in email form.
Worse, it is unthinkable to send it without going through the appropriate Director and ADM channels for sign off before it goes to the DM's desk.
This is completely standard. The only thing newsworthy is that she has to ask for it in the first place.
You may not be aware OMG that du Toit invited ALL staff of mcfd, via email and in meetings, to email her DIRECTLY with issues, ideas, FEELINGS.
Her invitation was inappropriate. Now she is wagging her finger in the faces of mcfd staff rather than taking responsibility for this mistaken invitation due to her lack of management experience. She was told that her invitation wasn´t a good idea to begin with but lest we forget, du Toit and only du Toit has ideas worth pursuing even when their illconceived and are bound to fail.
Again, MVC you miss the point.
Lesley did not mention the ideas, feelings, issues etc., she specifically mentioned decision documents.
These are documents for signoff and/or approval. Not suggestions, not ideas. Decision documents.
MVC, if you are indeed in MCFD and you don't know the difference between an "issue, idea or FEELING" and a "document to see or approve" then maybe you are in the wrong line of work.
It is du Toit who is in the wrong line of work. She doesn't seem to be able to put into practice what she preaches.
But then I see that you must be her new best friend given that you allude to treating a Deputy with respect but then refer to du Toit by her first name.
I hear the sound of sucking.
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