Don’t be spooky
therealadam.com
Don’t be spooky
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Re: Don’t be spooky
#2> When you’re communicating with your team, lead with context and reassurance. Never message someone on your team, “let’s talk when you get a minute”. That’s void of information and scary as heck!
This should be engraved on a plaque in every office building.
Re: Don’t be spooky
#3This is excellent. I use "When do you have time to talk about ways to solve [particular issues, with ticket numbers if possible], including [possible initial implementations and approaches] and how they impact other parts, including [part 1, module 4, service X, etc].
Our product offers real-time collaborative notebooks, and we use that feature to create a notebook that contains the agenda for what we'll address in a scheduled meeting. Each member writes down the issues they think are pressing. Then we get on a call and go through the points one by one, and we collaboratively edit the document based on the roadmap, customer conversation, etc.
We try to leave as little to interpretation as possible, and when someone isn't clear enough, others usually reply with clarifying questions. Usually a "What do you mean by X". The person then clarifies with a more specific answer, but we evolved to be much more systematic.
We strive to be "clear, concise, complete, and correct" in our writing, even more so for personal matters precisely to avoid people filling the void, and putting effort into what we'll actually talk about before the talk. I have addressed that issue with the same words and am aware that we fill the void with fear.
By the time we have the chat, the person has already done the groundwork and is prepared, and we both use time wisely.
Re: Don’t be spooky
#4I recently had spooky messages several times, like "All-hands meeting on Wednesday, attendance is mandatory". So, are we all getting fired? Are you leaving? If you want your employees dusting off their resumes, this is a great way to do it.
Re: Don’t be spooky
#5It works the other way around too. As a manager, when some of my employees sent me messages like: "Can we talk when you have some time?" One of my immediate fears was that they are quitting because he found another job.
That happened only once, the other 300 times it was just about something they were working on and needed more information.
Re: Don’t be spooky
#6This is the corporate equivalent to “See me after class” and “We need to talk.”
Re: Don’t be spooky
#7My company and manager is excellent to always add reassurances to such requests.
Re: Don’t be spooky
#8This is the corporate equivalent to “See me after class” and “We need to talk.”
Believe it or not, lots of people in the corporate environment still behave like grown children, but with much more expensive toys.
Re: Don’t be spooky
#9This reminds me of this wonderful NPR segment from last year:
>[...] when it comes to text messaging, the period has lost its original purpose because rather needing a symbol to indicate the end of a sentence, you can simply hit send on your message. But caution is needed, said McCulloch, noting that problems can start to arise when you combine a period with a positive sentiment, such as "Sure" or "Sounds good." "Now you've got positive words and serious punctuation and the clash between them is what creates that sense of passive-aggression," said McCulloch.
https://www.npr.org/2020/09/05/909969004/before-texting-your...
Re: Don’t be spooky
#10It works the other way around too. As a manager, when some of my employees sent me messages like: "Can we talk when you have some time?" One of my immediate fears was that they are quitting because he found another job. That happened only once, the other 300 times it was just about something they were working on and needed more information.
Right? I called a meeting to let people know a teammate was off because he'd suddenly lost family and was a real mess and needed our support, and I didn't feel comfortable putting that in emails... And the reaction I got was "I was scared I thought you were quitting". They stopped short of saying it was a relief, which is good, given the circumstances.