Due to personal choice and time constraints, I do not use Facebook or Orkut. However, I do enjoy using Hotmail Messenger and e-mails to get in touch with family and friends. Most of the time I am happy – so I make sure I use cute smile faces along my messages to express my happiness; whenever the opposite occurs, I use sad little faces to express my emotions. Hence, I do not conceive electronic media as impersonal on these moments.
Weeks ago all employees in my department received an email with instructions on how we should communicate with other departments through e-mail. The subject of that email (communication) called my attention immediately, but the content made many people uncomfortable. To sum up, they drafted some guidelines on how to be more rational when writing emails. “These little symbols of happiness are considered annoying to the receiver.” In this situation PEOPLE clearly started “filtering out nonverbal cues and therefore, inhibited the communication of social and emotional content."
On page 12 of textbook, we see that “instead of formulating e-mail messages as formal letters, beginning with a “Dear…” or a “Hi…”many people simply write the message as if a conversation was already going on.” In my view, if organizations want to do whatever other organizations are doing, they should understand that at the end of the day, their biggest asset is still the human being - preferbly happy. Whenever I receive any help from a co-worker, for instance, I make sure I add some happy face at the end of my message to reinforce my gratitude. I do care about writing correctly, but I do not put efforts to become someone I am not just to follow the protocol.
Garota de Ipanema
Streaning Star Trek: Insurrection Full Movie
6 years ago
1 comment:
It's probably not a good idea to actively discourage people from using emoticons at the workplace. Management runs the risk of being perceived as "too impersonal" or "too uncool" when imposing such strict standards for email communication. It is very understandable for employees to feel uncomfortable with strong guidelines inhibiting freedom in communicating their emotions is very simple and inoffensive ways. I'm quite surprised that someone actually found an ordinary emoticon "annoying" enough to complaint about it in the first place!
In my opinion, management might have been more prudent to perhaps send out a guideline for better communication using language, without touching upon the touchy subject of banishing emoticons altogether from emails.
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