Instant Messaging In The Work Place

Last week as a part of the Recruiting.com Blog Swap I was able to do a post on Mike Taylor’s blog Online Recruitment Marketing titled Search 1998 v Search 2006.

   

In getting Nerd Search up and running I have been flashing back to 1998 when I did this the first time and times have changed so much I am feeling a little old.

   

I listed in the post all of the tools we used in the business in 1998 and now in 2006 but I forgot one thing, largely because I do not use it as much as most do. Mostly I use it with the college kids.

   

Instant Messaging.

   

Today the St. Paul Pioneer Press has this story Businesses discover IM isn't just for kids about how IM is becoming a more widely used tool. Mostly because that’s how the younger crowd communicates:

   

For many younger people, it's about choosing the best communication tool for the situation. They might use their phones for text messaging during a work meeting that requires silence, Rainie said, or make a phone call to discuss sensitive subjects so there's no written record.

   

E-mail remains the most popular Internet activity, embraced by 90 percent of users, Pew data shows: "Even teens, many of whom disparage e-mail as something for 'old people,' and (who) tend to prefer instant messaging, have not completely abandoned it."

   

But about 65 percent of Internet-savvy Twin Cities residents now use instant messaging, according to a recent IM-trends survey sponsored by America Online, and about a third send as many or more instant messages than e-mails. Roughly a quarter of employed Twin Cities residents will IM while at work, the survey found; 14 percent put their IM screen names on their business cards.

   

My buddy Steven Rothberg, who seems to be a media darling lately, is in the article:

   

But not all IM addicts are graceful and considerate in their communications, said Steven Rothberg, founder of the Minneapolis-based CollegeRecruiter.com career Web site. He has pushed for increased IM-ing with co-workers and outside clients because he finds it fosters immediate, to-the-point exchanges that move business deals forward.

   

But he recently was forced to block one man from continually contacting him for frivolous, time-wasting reasons.

   

"He just wanted to say hi, to catch up," Rothberg recalled. "Seldom was it anything time-sensitive, almost never anything that was important. I warned him several times, then blocked him."

   

Fortunately I have used IM so I can balance the multiple conversations and when to or not to send a message to a client or friend during the work-day. But apparently “grown-ups” (and how old is that now?” are having some issues:

    

Grown-ups who are latecomers to IM often have trouble with the medium, said Danah Boyd, a doctoral candidate who studies social media at the University of California, Berkeley.

   

"Adults who learn to use IM later have major difficulty talking to more than two people at one time — whereas the teens who grew up on it have no problem talking to a bazillion people at once," Boyd said. "They understand how to negotiate the interruptions a lot better."