Professional Tools Require Professional Boundaries

The workplace is an interesting environment. Not only is it a place where numerous people with vastly different personalities are kept in close proximity, but it also actively forces them to interact with one another—and a lot, too. It is also important to recognize that the conversation there is a unique blend of professional and interpersonal elements. This is the case whether the office is a physical space or a digital concept.

Of course, as with any environment, there are stressors that complicate things and insert friction into the workplace. Let’s discuss how the tools you use to communicate can help smooth over this friction, if used correctly.

The Key to Effective Communication is Establishing “Where” and “How”

As stated, any workplace’s communications are a blend of the professional and the personal—discussions of business matters and water-cooler talk intermixed throughout the day. This is a healthy, normal dynamic for a pack of social creatures (which, when you get down to it, is what the workplace is).

That said, there is always a balance to strike to make this dynamic effective for everyone. Work still needs to be done, but complete dissociation between the professional and personal isn’t ideal, either… There's a reason Apple TV’s Severance is classified as a “psychological thriller” and not as a “slice of life workplace comedy.”

Therefore, it is important to establish clear boundaries that specify where certain conversations can take place and what is appropriate to share in these spaces.

Surprise, Surprise… AI Has Made these Boundaries Even More Important

The benefits of interpersonal communication between coworkers are clear, from the camaraderie they develop to the ease with which professional information is shared among teammates when needed. 

What is less clear, unfortunately, is whether or not your team members are always talking to each other.

Hackers and other cybercriminals will often collect information about your staff to insert themselves into your employees’ conversations, posing as different team members to fool anyone who takes the bait.

Picture it:

DAVE: Hey man, did you catch the game last night
STEVE: I sure did. what a bummer
DAVE: yeah, we’ll get em next time
STEVE: yeah… how was your weekend?
DAVE: apart from the game, pretty good
STEVE: good
DAVE: hey, can you send the password for the company social media? i cant seem to find it
STEVE: yeah man, I got you
STEVE: jjiklop66gj
DAVE: thanks

Hopefully, that actually is Dave that Steve is talking to. Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly likely that it could be a cybercriminal and/or the AI they are using.

This is also why work matters need to stay on work accounts. Let’s say that Steve got that message through Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, or any of the endless messaging applications available right now. If this conversation took place where you have no influence whatsoever, you suddenly have a major vulnerability and no visibility over it. As surprising as it may be, how your team communicates can have just as much impact on your security as what they are communicating.

There’s Also the Interpersonal to Take Into Account

Beyond the security ramifications, where and how your team members communicate can significantly impact the professional relationships they maintain. Tell me this: after a long day, when they’re finally able to relax, unwind, and decompress, do you think your team members want to do anything even tangentially related to work?

For the majority of them, probably not… so, if Dave (and yes, actually Dave this time) starts pinging Steve in the middle of dinner on his personal phone or his Instagram messages, Steve is likely to get pretty annoyed. If it persists, Steve could start resenting Dave and feeling burnt out about work as his escape is undermined. Then it’s just a matter of time before these negative feelings spill back into the workday and become everyone’s problem.

Your team needs to be able to disconnect to avoid the fast track to burnout.

On the topic of burnout, notification fatigue is another problem that can hinder effective communication. Think of how easy it is to start tuning out notifications… if your official business channels are flooded with gossip, inside jokes, and other unnecessary chatter, the important stuff is bound to be missed and buried amongst the memes and off-topic conversations. Obviously, this can and does lead to conflict.

How to Minimize This Conflict

The strategy is almost irritatingly simple: set firm boundaries on when, how, and which communication channels may be used for work and interpersonal communication, while also giving your team the options required to respect these boundaries.

For example, best practice dictates that business communications stay on business-controlled platforms. In addition to helping maintain your business data’s security needs, this has the added benefit of making it easier for your team members to disconnect and recharge during their off hours, confident that the stresses of the workday won’t bleed over.

Getting a little more granular, it also helps to maintain separate communication channels for professional conversations and interpersonal ones. In addition to simply being easier to find critical information when side chats about movies or the game aren’t mixed in with it, it also helps minimize notification fatigue… after all, how long would it take you to tune out the notification if two people out of eight were just chatting about a show you had no interest in? Separate conversations help prevent this from happening and inciting conflict.

Even more granularly, you should encourage your team to be as clear as possible in all their professional communications with one another. Vagueness can easily lead to wasted time or outright errors. If Sam sends Toby a message concerning the Robertson contract, it would be a problem if Sam were talking about P. Robinson and Toby assumed that G. Robertson was the pertinent client.

In a way, almost every communication issue can be boiled down into some combination of misaligned mediums and messaging. If you can establish and enforce the proper standards, you can greatly reduce the likelihood of a work communication issue popping up in most situations. 

In Summation, There Are Things We All Should Do to Improve Office Communications

1. Keep all work-related chats and conversations on company-managed tools.
2. Consider which communications should go to which recipients and send them accordingly.
3. Ensure all communications are specific and descriptive to avoid confusion.

If this can be accomplished, everyone’s time is saved, and the business is better protected and more efficient.

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