Communication breakdown
January 26, 2010
Is the fast pace and ease of social media making our interactions in the workplace too informal?
Is social media making us too informal in the workplace? Do you often end an email with “thnx!” or include a casual “LOL”? And so what if you do? Is that wrong?
Professionally and socially, we have become dependent on a variety of electronic forms of communication including texting, email, Twitter and other social media forums. All of which beg for the succinctness that a brief “IMO” or “BTW” allow. But at what point do these quick and easy forms of communication become detrimental when forging business relationships?
There’s no doubt that technology has given us new ways to communicate, not only with a much broader group of friends, colleagues and strangers, but also in a way to make multi-taskers everywhere rejoice. In fact, as you read this, you’re probably also chatting with a coworker, drafting an email to a client, and keeping an eye on your phone’s feeds from Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
The overlap of social media’s social and professional purposes sometimes allows professionalism and politeness to go by the wayside. The more that people rely on electronic forms of communication, the easier it is to forget that a live person is receiving the words we blast into cyberspace.
The intended sincerity of the “thnx” you emailed your client can be misconstrued as an inappropriately casual or terse response. The easy-going “LOL” can be taken to mean you may not take a subject as seriously as you should.
In your daily communications, how often do you use this new media shorthand?
Maybe you’ve developed the kind of relationship with your coworker or client that make your smiley face emoticons a non-issue. We want to know, how did you get to that point? And who made the first move to communiqué filled with winky faces and a spirited helping of exclamation points?
–Katherine Boyce, Sales Associate, Network Media Partners
Filed under: workplace
2 Comments Leave a Comment
1. Jen Smith | January 26, 2010 at 10:53 am
It can be really hard to understand someone’s inflection through an email, so I understand why smiley faces and exclamation points have become so common in business communication. Still, I think there’s a point at which you can write to your colleagues or clients with caring and sensitivity so there’s no need for emoticons.
2. sdr | January 26, 2010 at 10:55 am
I think that internal communications by and large can be much more casual and familiar, thereby making a ’smiley face emoticon’ appropriate. External client communications should probably veer away from that unless you have a VERY strong and long-standing relationship with the client. I’d always rather err on the side of too formal than risk being perceived as flip or unprofessional.
Leave a Comment
XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
TrackBack URL | RSS feed for comments on this post.