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IM best-practices in the workplace
Brian McCaffrey | Sep 28 2007
What is IM used for in the workplace? My office mates and I figured out this week that we have an IM client on our corporate workstations. Novices to the world of corporate IM, we don't really know what it's used for. I've used IM clients at home, of course, but never at work and we're all at a bit of a loss on how this would be useful, if at all. A quick session of searching 43f reveals that most of the discussion up until this point has been about managing the distractions of IM and managing your coworkers' expectations of your responses. But I'm wondering, what's IM used for in business? So far in my office, people have started chat sessions with entire work teams present online and left the session open all day. Team members will post questions or comments or requests to review edits on shared documents. In one of our groups, the director has moved some of his communication to the chat room, with the expectation that his team members will read this message during the next hour or two. Is this a typical use? How about one-on-one chats with colleagues? Tell me what IM looks like at your workplace. 46 Comments
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 IM and SameTime (r) at WorkSubmitted by jcupak on September 29, 2007 - 9:19am.
My company also uses SameTime and its associated IM clone. As an instructor for company courses, I use SameTime to provide lectures at multiple sites without having to travel - even if the sites are at different locations in the same building. We couple the SameTime client with a conference call system so we can have 2-way conversations. I have also setup my mail system to automatically file messages from students based on the subject line. On the subject of IMs, however, it's an entirely different story. My supervisor and training coordinator are located in different buildings, and it's a waste of time to have to walk over to them just to ask a question or solve a problem. So, we use IMs to interact - on a brief basis. If the issue is a bit more involved, we use the IM to arrange a meeting. Of course, we also do the "going for coffee - want one, too?" casual message, but generally minimize the personal IMs. On the other hand, I sometimes get a "crisis" IM from my supervisor or training coordinator - typically in the form of "Please see me immediately" or "HELP! The XXX doesn't work!" Then it's "sneaker-net" time. When the supervisor or training coordinator sends me a detailed IM, I immediately save the message manually, as there is no automatic message log capability. This has saved me in the past, as I have an audit trail of requests and issues to refer to when issues arise later - as they often do. When I am trying to get something done, I put a "Doing XXX - send me an email if it's important" kind of busy message up. Sometimes, when I put up a "Do Not Disturb" autoreply, I get a personal visit from my supervisor who wants to know why I didn't respond to him immediately. Seems IMs are supposed to be replied to instantly and never turned off. Company employees are required to take "Ethics" modules yearly, and the one on email and IMs is very enlightening. Seems that email and IMs are NOT private and are persistent - that is, around "forever." That should caution users to watch what they send in email and say in IMs. Well, in summary, I agree with the guidelines suggested by henrikmk. I think I'll try and draw up a list of IM guidelines from the work ethics module and see how it matches what's been posted here. J » POSTED IN:
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