We conducted a survey on cell phone and Bluetooth usage and asked the following questions:
1. How is the misuse addressed in your workplace?
2. Share a humorous experience or observation.
3. How are companies (domestic and international) eliminating the misuse?
4. Offer a “courteous user” kudo.
The results of this initial survey are on our website newsletter at
http://www.globalprotocol.com/03a%20PassportToPower.htm
(You will enjoy the video clip on Bluetooth usage at a restaurant.)
The “Wall Street Journal” ( Tuesday, July 29, 2008 ) states that job candidates are turning off hiring managers with their too-casual text speak when responding to career opportunities on mobile devices. What is your opinion?
We invite you to share your thoughts on this blog.
July 2, 2008 at 1:09 pm |
In the UK, because we are part of Europe, then people think that if you shout at foreigners, they will understand English! Even worse with a mobile phone.
A few years ago, London – Waterloo station, had about thirty telephone hoods which were fully occupied continuously at five o’clock onwards. Your suggestion to bring hoods back is a good one, because the station forecourt sounds like the Tower of Babel – with thousands of conversations being shared with those who don’t want to hear !
August 7, 2008 at 9:42 am |
I’d tell the hiring managers to get with the times.. if they want to hire Gen Y and millenials, they better get used to speaking in 140 characters or less.
August 8, 2008 at 4:52 pm |
Casual Text Speak is direspectful in response to hiring managers and should be limited to personal friends who are not offended to receive such messages.
August 8, 2008 at 4:54 pm |
SMS is a fact of modern life – both at work and at home for leisure. Texting can be helpful
in certain business instances where for example busy corporate phone lines do not enable you
to complete a call with an urgent message. Business texting may be an acceptable alternative and/or
supplement to voicemail: for example:”Gloria, Urgnt – Pls Call Bk Now”.
One significant downside is the impact of SMS on employee spelling. I am appalled at the increase in spelling errors and ignorance in everyday business written communications. This clearly is attributable
partly to shortcomings in our educational systems, in part to over-reliance on context-limited spell checkers,
and perhaps in part to a tad too much texting.
As a Community Director on a local K8 school board, I reiterated this to our Principal today.
Tomorrow’s business generation can never start too early to hone their public speaking and presentation skills as well as, of course, their writing and spelling abilities.
August 8, 2008 at 5:08 pm |
I can paraphrase comments made to me by a prominent financial executive on this subject. “I look with distaste on copies of emails and text messages that are part of the resumes of candidates for mid to high level positions with us. They always appear to have been written in great haste, are unedited for spelling and punctuation, and are full of textspeak. I feel at times like I need a dictionary and a code book. It may be a great way for teenagers to communicate, but not for us.”
August 11, 2008 at 10:54 am |
My thoughts? If someone can’t slow down long enough to write out a clearly worded mesage when they are seeking employment from me, then they are clearly too busy to be a serious consideration. Don’t get me wrong, slang and text speak have their places in the world. A response to a postion announcement isn’t one of them.
August 11, 2008 at 10:57 am |
This is interesting for me, because I do a lot of business through these newer communication methods. I follow tweets (small micro-blogs of 140 words or less) from other Ed. Instructional Designers, have meetings in Second Life with PhDs, and am semi-young enough to be considered a millenial.
I come from a space where individuality is ok, and the manner in which you disseminate information is secondary to the information itself. Wha tmakes me sad about this article is the fact that there are people of my generation who are blurring the lines between personal and professional, and doing so in manners that are intactful, and borderline unprofessional. I think in everyday communications with people you get along wiht, it is ok to text-speak, but the Blog stating that people were doing so in first communications and potential employers is just wrong. I hope more young people read this and get a sense of how there correpondence is interpreted (or misinterpreted).
August 14, 2008 at 3:32 pm |
In this “I can’t live without my Blackberry” culture, I am not at all surprised with what HR is now being subjected to. Institutions of higher learning are churning out candidates who have never lived without a cell phone, and couldn’t write a thank-you letter on a dare. With a marketplace currently flooded with candidates, hiring authorities can and should be discriminating—text-speak has no place in the professional arena—and we all need to model the behavior we want to see in the working world.
What’s the difference between a Columbia MBA candidate and an NYU MBA candidate with the same level of experience??–Presence, Polish and Professionalism—and a darn good business etiquette class!!!!!