Banning e-mail at work?

From The Atlantic:

What would happen if you couldn’t e-mail colleagues at work? What would happen if you didn’t have to read e-mails from colleagues at work?

One of the largest technology companies in Europe is looking to ban office email. Are they ahead of the curve, or are they totally ignoring the origins of our communications kluge?

One of Europe’s largest technology companies has a new rule for employees. Get off email. Get on instant messenger.
Atos CEO Thierry Breton claims the amount of email pinging around his 50,000-employee company (which is about the size of Apple) is “unsustainable,” forcing managers to spend up to 25 hours a week reading and writing emails. He told employees that the company plans to phase out email between colleagues over the next three years. “Email will still be used for external communications, but employees will be expected to use collaboration and social media tools instead of email to communicate with fellow co-workers,” theFinancial Times reports.

Banning intra-office email: Horrible counter-productive idea, or inspired work-flow enhancer?