4 ms·

Ok, I understand the value of writing, but it feels uncomfortable to me that a company creates a "Tone of Voice guide" for its employees. I am not saying that

by soneca 6y ago

Ok, I understand the value of writing, but it feels uncomfortable to me that a company creates a "Tone of Voice guide" for its employees. I am not saying that is necessarily wrong (maybe it is), nor that is not useful, but it just seems like another small step in removing the individuality of the people working there. It doesn't feel right to me. The writing advice that I follow and that I like to give is that your writing style should reflect your personality. Your individuality should be with you on some level even if you are representing your company in a meeting with a client, or to the press, or internally. Writing style should be unique to you, not to your company. An exception should be someone whose job is to be the spokesperson or a lawyer creating a document that declares the position of the company. But that's a very different use case from the one declared at this guide. The way it says "How we write", "Our voice is who we are", "We are clear/honest/transparent", "We are empowering"; it looks uncannily familiar to the Borg. eidt: Another thing. When they say "Swap formal words for normal ones. There's a whole lexicon of British "business-speak" that one can use to sound professional, but also needlessly distant. We try to avoid that: It reminds of another cultural change where the principles remained just the same, like: "Remember when everybody on business had to wear a suit and people would make fun of anyone who showed to work on a plain t-shirt? We are not like that. Here we make fun of people who want to wear a suit".

RNCTX 6y ago
I'm all for individualism in most contexts but having been the person responsible for the bulk of an organization's message to its customers (email, social media, and phone call etiquette), it's not a malicious intent here. The only way you can accomplish a consistent message is by rules like these, and the people outside of the organization who are dealing with it want a consistent message. When you're speaking on behalf of an organization, be it a business or non-profit or government or whatever, you're obligated to use their words. When I pick up a novel I know I'm reading the novelist's ideas, but when I call tech support I'm not looking to talk to Joe or Jane, I'm looking to talk to AT&T about why their DSL equipment in my neighborhood is broken. They aren't personally responsible for it, they're speaking for the company. This even extends to political press. If you go read the submission guidelines for virtually any news or political publication that accepts freelance inquiries, you'll find that they all suggest reading a lot of their prior articles "to get a feel for our tone and style," if they don't just outright hand you a style guide to read such as the one linked. You can be you standing in plain clothes on a street corner by yourself. You can't be you when you're answering the company's phone. It's not nefarious mind control, it's just business.
- venantius 6y ago
  That's exactly right. We don't want /products page to noticeably have been written by Jessica while /pricing is noticeably by Andrew. We want a consistent corporate voice - partly because otherwise we don't have an actual brand identity, but also because if Jessica or Andrew leave then that voice leaves with them, which also just services to confuse.
  - soneca 6y ago
    None of all these examples seem to be what the guide is talking about. I agree official communication and the website should be the company identity. But the guide seems to talk about regular day-to-day communication on a startup. Jessica emails to a customer should have Jessica writing style in them, in my opinion. Just like any salesperson carries their own personality to a sales meeting. Or internal emails between employees. You don’t write to Andrew to clarify some doubts about a report in the same tone of the company website. Or any standard tone. You write in your own style. At least I think you should.

by soneca 6y ago

RNCTX 6y ago

I'm all for individualism in most contexts but having been the person responsible for the bulk of an organization's message to its customers (email, social media, and phone call etiquette), it's not a malicious intent here. The only way you can accomplish a consistent message is by rules like these, and the people outside of the organization who are dealing with it want a consistent message. When you're speaking on behalf of an organization, be it a business or non-profit or government or whatever, you're obligated to use their words. When I pick up a novel I know I'm reading the novelist's ideas, but when I call tech support I'm not looking to talk to Joe or Jane, I'm looking to talk to AT&T about why their DSL equipment in my neighborhood is broken. They aren't personally responsible for it, they're speaking for the company. This even extends to political press. If you go read the submission guidelines for virtually any news or political publication that accepts freelance inquiries, you'll find that they all suggest reading a lot of their prior articles "to get a feel for our tone and style," if they don't just outright hand you a style guide to read such as the one linked. You can be you standing in plain clothes on a street corner by yourself. You can't be you when you're answering the company's phone. It's not nefarious mind control, it's just business.

venantius 6y ago
That's exactly right. We don't want /products page to noticeably have been written by Jessica while /pricing is noticeably by Andrew. We want a consistent corporate voice - partly because otherwise we don't have an actual brand identity, but also because if Jessica or Andrew leave then that voice leaves with them, which also just services to confuse.
- soneca 6y ago
  None of all these examples seem to be what the guide is talking about. I agree official communication and the website should be the company identity. But the guide seems to talk about regular day-to-day communication on a startup. Jessica emails to a customer should have Jessica writing style in them, in my opinion. Just like any salesperson carries their own personality to a sales meeting. Or internal emails between employees. You don’t write to Andrew to clarify some doubts about a report in the same tone of the company website. Or any standard tone. You write in your own style. At least I think you should.