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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: Threat or Menace?Submitted by Moeskido on September 29, 2007 - 1:26pm.
I've found that IM is one of those small indicators of major cultural truths about a workplace. Is your office populated by fools who don't read carefully-worded emails, but appear behind your desk the moment they've written you something barely comprehensible, asking if you've seen it yet? Is your company/desktop locked down by an IT group which continues to react to a situation you never contributed to? I'm a print designer (books, marketing, packaging) at an educational services company. I use IM for quick questions about information I need, which have not yet been addressed in the emails which should have done so. The offline nature of an IM allows me to also comment on the ways in which the work process has been overlooked... again. It's off the paper trail, if not IT's potential scrutiny. I'm also 47 years old, which means I've never been at the leading edge of popular technology. But IM only required a slightly different grammar for terse workplace conversation... something I've had to learn to negotiate without overuse of dry sarcasm. Which is not to say it isn't also a major conduit for office gossip, lame humor, or personal remarks which wouldn't necessarily fly well, spoken aloud in a cubicle farm. I like to think our design group has achieved a good balance in this regard. P.S.: The only group chats we use are for the purpose of determining where some of us are going for lunch, or when conspiracy is required for a birthday-related surprise activity. I should also add that I'm one of the older folks within the group. Educational curriculum developer/writers at this company are all over the age spectrum, but the majority of our Production/Editorial Scoobies are between 25 and 30. Many are far more intelligent than their compensation would indicate, and their IM use reflects this. Welcome to publishing. » POSTED IN:
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