< /p> A screenshot of Slack messaging, in 2020 © Slack Technologies
If you use professional messaging, you may have experienced this before. You receive a message from a colleague that contains only one banal and rather polite word: “Hi”. Except that the latter is not supplemented by any other element, and your interlocutor does not intend to say more.
This type of behavior should be avoided at all costs in the workplace. As recently explained to Huffpost, Pattie Ehsaei, executive of a large bank, who also manages the TikTok account duchessofdecorum (Duchess of decorum), specializing in behavior at work:
Any work communication via email or Slack should have a clear agenda and purpose, either providing information or providing enough context for the recipient to respond. “Hi” leaves the recipient confused as to the purpose of the communication and does not trigger a response.
How to avoid blunders?
This trend would vary depending on the age of the employee and is very present among baby boomers (generation born between 1943 and 1960). To avoid any problems, the observers interviewed by the American media propose a very simple solution: You must complete this first word with a question or concrete information, which calls for a reaction from your colleague.
He The same goes for responses such as “Ok”. It's better to go beyond just one word and add things like: “Okay, that's great” or “Okay, let's do this”, which are much more polite and prevent your answer from seeming too curt.
Note that with the explosion of teleworking, the use of professional messaging has increased considerably. One might have thought that the latter had a tendency to isolate employees and break up collectives, but this is not the case if we are to believe this survey carried out in the United States and relayed by Entrepreneur.com at the start of the year.
Thus, 67% of respondents believe that their relationships with their colleagues have improved. The trend is even more marked among respondents aged 25 to 34, 73.8% of whom believe they feel closer to other employees in their company. You can reread this study in more detail in our dedicated article here.
What to remember:
- On professional messaging, messages such as “Hi” which are not completed create discomfort
- They are mainly the responsibility of older employees
- Overall, employees have become accustomed to using messaging systems such as Slack or Microsoft Teams
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