Unfortunately, that’s something we in the printing industry seem to have forgotten, according at least to this week’s interview subject, the BAPC’s Sidney Bobb.

And he probably has a point.

If you walked into any workplace, even just a decade ago, the offices would be alive with the hubbub of animated voices and the shrill sound of ringing telephones. Today, however, the chances are all you will hear is the gentle tapping of keyboards and the very occasional hushed telephone conversation.

Email is an incredibly useful tool, it offers an instant message trail of agreed points and actions and is a helpful aide-mémoire when archived.

But when you think of the technological innovations that have sucked time out of our lives, rather than made things more efficient, it’s difficult to find a more despotic example.

Various studies estimate that the average office worker spends a third of their working day writing, reading or responding to emails (half of which probably never leave the building), and that’s before you take into account the time spent replying to messages on mobile devices out of hours.

It is also notoriously difficult to communicate nuance and tone in an email, whereas the value of having an actual conversation, either face-to-face or on the phone – in terms of building a relationship based on trust or developing a better understanding of a client’s needs – is all too often underestimated.

So come on, listen to the two Bob(b)s and next time you’re pondering how to respond to a lengthy email, just pick up the phone and see what happens. You might be pleasantly surprised.