Lj Idol -- Topic 15: Failure to Communicate
As much as I love technological advances (I mean, heck - I'm typing in a journal where people across the WORLD, most of whom I've never met, are reading and connecting with me!), I think that some people take things a bit too far in the workplace.
For example: I don't care if you're responding from your iPhone or Blackberry - the tagline sent from my Blackberry - please excuse spelling and/or brevity does NOT excuse poor spelling and/or grammar in a professional setting. When I'm scheduling an interview, I'd prefer that you don't just send me a one-word response on your Blackberry as your initial response to my outreach. Could you PLEASE take a few seconds to think about what you're writing, to show that you care about this position and my time, and to SPELL THINGS CORRECTLY.
I may be an English major, grammar-loving nerd; but I feel like I'm pretty tolerant of people who don't get jazzed by discussing the etymology of a word or the joys of alliteration. I won't care if you don't use the "best word available" in a particular moment, but I will care if you don't give me the common courtesy of a quick 5 second proofread before sending me an email.
Also, even if you get annoyed with me (for some reason - though who knows why you would ever do that *wink*), please, please, please don't insult me and do one of the following:
- SPELL LIKE A KINDERGARTENER
- SPACE LIKE AN IDIOT
- CHOOSE YOUR WORDS LIKE YOU DID IN FIRST GRADE
Say you did in fact do one of these things...guess what?
Oh, snap!
Your insult just became a joke for me to post to my Livejournal or Facebook instead of a piercing blow to my self esteem. It is true!
Now, I'll confess...
I DO sometimes use text-speak in text messages to friends and family...
I DO sometimes tweet like a dork*
But guess what? When I'm at work, I don't send an email with crazy titles or with things like "Thank u 4 ur email. Will b in touch soon. Thnx!"
I'm young** and could maybe use the excuse of "not knowing any better" or being "hip with the times" but in all honesty, it doesn't take me that much longer to type out: "Thank you for your email. I will be in touch with you soon. Thank you!"
I love and hate the immediacy of technology today - Twitter, iPhones, Blackberries, Facebook, texting. It's great to stay connected, but when does connectivity change what professionalism means in the workplace? When do we start texting candidates for availability, tweeting instead of sending out memos to the company, posting about work events on Facebook groups?
I know that some of that is already happening; so maybe I shouldn't be so judgmental when it comes to these "social indiscretions in the workplace"...but in all honesty, professional communication hasn't changed that much yet; and I for one don't want for my communication to fail to get through to the next person because I am trying to be hip or to save 2 seconds.
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English Major Nerds Love Footnotes:
*This past weekend I was in a contest for hogwarts_elite where I TWEETED LIKE A CHARACTER FROM HARRY POTTER. It was epic and awesome - trufax.
**I will admit that I may have sent THIS Zac Efron YouTube Video to my team when we were celebrating our 17th hire of the quarter...but I would never, ever send that to someone I was just getting to know professionally.
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This is my entry for therealljidol's Week 15 Prompt FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE. I'd encourage you to check out the other posts HERE. Who know what our contest-master Gary has in store for this week regarding voting, but I definitely think that you should check out the other entries. I've only read a few and they were all awesome! :)