The Christian Science Monitor
has an article up about office etiquette and the use of technology.
The article gets everything backwards, which is not surprising considering their site has popup windows. It doesn't address the root causes of most of the annoying behaviors, which are typically bad management and business philosophies.
If someone is breaking office etiquette, it's probably because some other policy is causing them to.Take a look at the examples. These people aren't the rude ones -- the rude ones caused them to behave this way.
Talking on cell phones, blackberries, PDAs during meetings.This is because the meeting is boring, too long, or usually completely unnecessary. When someone starts using a blackberry during a meeting, it's because the meeting is less important than their work. It is rude to waste people's time in this manner. If your meeting truly is necessary and compelling for the attendees, this won't be a problem.
Laptops in meetingsDid people think legal pads were rude before computers? The most efficient meetings I have attended are where people can simultaneously be wired and researching/recording the subjects of the meeting while listening to the person talking. If this is a repeating ongoing meeting, you can have all the notes of all the meetings
ever searchable at an instant, for example.
Cell phone ringers during meetings.It is admittedly annoying to hear the Mexican hat dance or some similar ring tone during a meeting, but the same reasons for people having their phones in the meeting is the same reason people have their blackberries - they need to be elsewhere, doing something else.
Treating email like a conversationWere hand-written notes rude before email? What's really rude is giving someone detailed information and forcing them to record it again. Phone numbers. Serial numbers.
Email and web addresses.
Blocking out distractions with headphonesIt's bad office etiquette to silently and personally make your work environment less distracting?
Guess what? People don't always
answer their phones. They are not
always at their desk to answer your request or be interrupted.
Wireless headsets don't let people know you're on the phoneIt's because you are too cheap to buy
"on phone" indicators. Anyway, why are you interrupting this person who may or may not be on the phone?
I understand that many people only
think they need to be available during meetings, but that's their decision, not someone else's, to make.
My solution for the etiquette of all meetings is this: When scheduling a meeting, announce in advance that it is a "pen and paper only" and "cell phone free" meeting. Just remember this means no Powerpoint.
Shame on you again Lifehacker, for
repeating such tripe.
