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I graduated high school right around the time when it was becoming standard for teenagers to have cellphones. Initially only a handful of my peers owned one, but by junior year even I had a pretty basic model. I got used to communicating with friends and family using the grammatical shortcuts and emoticons that come pretty standard with sending and receiving text messages. This was never an issue because etiquette wasn’t something my friends and I ever considered when communicating with one another. However, as I neared the end of my college experience and started working as an intern and then applying for jobs, communicating via cellphones was pretty common amongst not only my friends, but also my bosses. I found that I felt a divide between the language I would use speaking to a friend via text message and the language I would use when I needed to give my boss a heads up if I was running late to work. This seems perfectly normal to me, in the same way that I would converse in person with friends differently than I would speak to a boss or a colleague. However, the number of ways that people are able to stay in touch and the frequency with which we can correspond with one another seems to have blurred the line between friendly and professional communication. I think this is a good thing, in that it can provide a more comfortable working environment and create a better rapport among employees if you don’t feel like you have to only ever be formal with one another, but it also can be difficult to know when to turn off the colloquial and turn on the professional. Jason Nicholson, a recruiter here at The Proven Method, gave me the idea for this blog, and sent me some of his thoughts on how he handles communication in professional settings:

 “As a constantly evolving medium, there’s not a clear set of defined practices. How do you determine the method and mode of communication? As a wise man once said, “It depends.” Generally, I try to use common sense by initiating conversation in a more formal manner and letting it deteriorate from there. Here’s my basic hierarchy: Letter, Telephone, Email, Texting, and Instant Messaging. The Five W’s (Who, Where, When, What and Why?) can be very helpful in determining how to communicate."

So, what are your thoughts on communication etiquette? Do you feel like it is different , working in the IT world, given the access and interest in the most cutting edge gadgets, than it is in other professional fields? We would love to hear your feedback!

Here are some interesting links that Jason provided on the topic: http://www.101emailetiquettetips.com/ http://provenmethod.com/blog/email-etiquette-professional-work-environment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_English_Dictionary The Proven Method reserves the right to remove all content we find inappropriate or offensive.