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> IMs occupy this weird spot between face to face conversation and a nice well-written email. IM is great; It occupies the perfect spot where the conversation
by mbell 7y ago
> IMs occupy this weird spot between face to face conversation and a nice well-written email.
IM is great; It occupies the perfect spot where the conversation is real time but the parties don't have to immediately answer. Having 30 seconds to think in between each interaction sounds trivial but it has a _massive_ impact on the quality of the interaction.
- jjcm 7y agoIn addition to that, I can hold multiple "real time" conversations at once with IM, whereas with video chat I'm glued to a single topic. These days I check my email about once a week. I do almost everything business oriented over IM.
- ehsankia 7y agoAbsolutely, being able re-read and take the time to digest the message is great in IM, especially for a non-native speaker. As mentioned else where, you can also do quick searches if there's something in there you didn't understand or want to double-check. It's not an "awkward middle ground", it's the "perfect middle ground"
- jay_kyburz 7y agoGreat for you, but I'm sitting around waiting for you to finish chatting with somebody else. I'd rather just call you and get your 100% attention, or if its not important, email you, and let you respond in your own time.
- yoz-y 7y agoHow would that be different from waiting for them to finish their 4th consecutive audio call?
- pferde 7y agoIf I send them an e-mail, I can drop the topic from my head, because I dumped all the relevant context into that e-mail, and am done with it for the time being. I can focus on my other work while waiting for them to reply, which can be 10 minutes, 10 hours or 10 days. Whereas if I have to wait for them to become free to talk to me, I have to keep all the context in my head, which interferes with my work, because my mind has a limited amount of "cache". Also, I now have to be on constant semi-alert waiting for the call because I don't know when they will become free. That makes it impossible to concentrate on any task too much. I am certainly not getting "into the zone" on anything. Cognitive load is a real thing, do not waste yours or someone else's.
- yoz-y 7y agoI think you can always send an e-mail when you need a detailed answer to a non time sensitive problem. Just because you can IM someone doesn’t mean that you have to. To me IM replaces the “I could spend an hour searching for something or just pop up at your desk and ask”. It’s better because I can, like you say, defer answering for a few minutes. In my previous job we had Slack, with General and Random channels. The discussion often went awry in these. Later we decided to create channels per team and more or less forbidden non work related chat. This basically fixed all of our problems with lost productivity and random pokes. Since people were not constantly on chat for random reasons, they did not use it for trivial work related stuff either.
- pferde 7y agoSure, I fully agree here, in general IM can be useful, if used correctly. We were, however, discussing a particular scenario where the choice is between e-mail or waiting for both parties being free for a phone/video call.
- neilalexander 7y agoOn the contrary, I would prefer to manage my attention, rather than have you manage it for me. That's where IM shines and phone calls fail.
- meowface 7y agoIf it's really something critically important or urgent, you can still send an IM and just say some variation of "this is important / time-sensitive". If they don't respond or start typing within a minute or two, then you can try to call.
- smelendez 7y agoI find video chat to be the worst business communication tool, unless you need screen sharing. It's still a mystery to me why people so often prefer it over the traditional phone, which has better audio and reliability and doesn't force everyone to regulate their posture, get in a professional looking location, etc
- yoz-y 7y agoFor some reason I can easily understand people on video chat even if they have strong accent whereas I can't grok anything on a phone call. I have had my hearing tested, it's not it. Also I feel that on video chat it is way easier to interject (if the camera is set up properly) than on a audio call with multiple people.
- tobylane 7y agoI wonder how much of that is phone line quality, or visual clues like lip reading.
- yoz-y 7y agoProbably a mix of both. I also have trouble understanding people in somewhat noisy environments so I think I just suck at cocktail party problems.
- pbedat 7y agoCurios! I have the same problem. My wife has the theory that I cannot filter all the other distractions well enough. Good to know I'm not alone ;)
- scotty79 7y agoI have exactly opposite experience. On the phone call I lower my head, close my eyes and focus on the sound of what's being said. While on video call when I don't understand someone when I see the person that expects to be understood it has a bit of "deer in the headlights" effect for me. My mind closes and I have no chance of understanding.
- cuddlybacon 7y agoWhat's nice about IM is you can generally get a pretty quick turn around without forcing them to stop what they were doing.
- z1mm32m4n 7y agoExactly. I can't imagine providing intra-company support over either email or IRL. IM lets me take a second to understand someone's question, maybe run some command or look up some docs, and then get back. When answering IRL, there's always the pressure to definitively answer the question, because they went through all the effort to actually take up time together. It's hard to say, "I don't know; I'll have to dig in deeper." And turn around time on email for questions like "Why doesn't this thing work" sounds like an easy way to get blocked for half a day.
- mikro2nd 7y agoIf it's that important or urgent, why not use the phone?
- dewey 7y agoBecause using a phone in most offices is pretty disruptive for everyone sitting close by. You also have to consider if the other party is available or just in a meeting, bathroom etc. IM everyone can get back to you as soon as it suits them without doing another “I’ll call you back” round trip.
- WAHa_06x36 7y agoWho the hell uses a phone in this and age? Who ever WANTED to use a phone? It is the most unpleasant method of communication available in this world.
- Bakary 7y agoIt depends entirely on your personality traits. Some people do genuinely prefer it.
- kryptiskt 7y agoTalking on a phone is a terrible medium for helping people. Say you want to give them a link to a resource, or a picture, then you have to IM or email them anyway.
- 7y ago
- kristianov 7y agoPausing for 30s during verbal conversation is also acceptable. Just saying.
- thrownblown 7y agoThat was when I had them reboot their computer when I was doing tech support in a call center
- mbell 7y agoShort pauses to collect your thoughts? Sure. Routinely placing 30s pauses between statements? No, it's not acceptable to most people. 30s is a really long time in verbal communication. Grab a stopwatch and try letting 30s run out between statements.
- pjc50 7y agoNot really - pauses are uncomfortable and most people will start speaking again within a few seconds just to fill it. Unless you've interrupted eye contact and are visibly doing something else, in which case to avoid rudeness you need to ask them to wait while you do it.
- dijit 7y ago> pauses are uncomfortable and most people will start speaking again within a few seconds just to fill it. Unless they’re Finnish. The Finns are fully comfortable with silence, I envy that trait.
- reificator 7y agoI think you might be underestimating just how long 30 seconds actually is.
- newsgremlin 7y agoI agree that works if you are both engaged in an activity, anything simple as mini-golf or eating dinner.
- keithnz 7y agoThey are great when done right, its a good way to queue up a tiny request for when someone gets to a logical break. I agree searching history is mostly useless though, we have only ever used slack as a free service where it deletes the IMs, never missed them.
- dijit 7y agoI wonder how many people share your opinion of searchable history, given that it’s the number one selling point for many people for slack over other IM systems. Or, at least it’s the one I hear most often.
- dclowd9901 7y agoI agree. In an especially technical conversation, I can dive deep in my knowledge before someone steam rolls me with their side (especially useful if someone broad sides me with a question). If it were an email, than the exchange would be far too slow to get anything meaningful done. I rarely come away from an IM exchange not having my problem solved. I nearly always come away from face to face and email communication either without my problem solved or it taking far longer to solve. Granted, this may be symptomatic of how people prefer IM over email but that seems to make the whole argument moot: people will self organize around the most efficient processes.
- vbezhenar 7y agoIt seems like different people prefer different communication styles. I don't like IM and I never use them for real-time communication. I'm picking up phone once or twice a day and respond when necessary and that's about it. Similar to e-mail.
- taborj 7y agoI have some folks that I work with on projects that are like this. I'm very much an email or IM guy, since 90% of the discussion is technical. But occasionally I have to work with someone who would rather pick up the phone to respond to my technical question. It's mildly infuriating, since the phone is the wrong medium for that particular conversation, and usually leads to delays even if I do pick up the call to answer the question, because the nature of the conversation doesn't lend itself well to a voice discussion. And that doesn't even take into account the fact that I'm not going to answer the phone if I'm on another call already, or deep into a technical problem. An IM or email, on the other hand, let's me answer their question without having to totally disengage from my current task. Obviously these are scenario-specific, and my work environment isn't yours. But things get tricky when our two work environments have to cross...
- gingabriska 7y agoI get anexity attacks when I to attend even a call let alone face to face meeting. Chat has solved my life issues and I've a good paying job now without chat I really doubt I'd be able to keep a job.