(no subject)

[listersgirl]

I was a little amused to see that at my nutritionist's office they use some form of IM (MSN Messenger?) to talk between the offices and reception, rather than the phone. It confused me for a moment, though, when the receptionist said, "I'll let ______ know that you're here", and then nothing seemed to happen.

I wonder, though, do they ever find themselves slipping into netspeak? Is there a supreme over-abundance of smileys? Do any of them use it for personal conversations, too, and accidentally send the wrong message? I don't know if that would work for me - I'm not sure I could actually have an IM conversation that didn't involve liberal uses of the words 'dude', 'seriously', 'heh', and 'meep'.

Comments

Well...

[gmajor.livejournal.com]

It does have the benefit of being somewhat less disruptive than a phone ringing, but...

Re: Well...

[listersgirl]

I quite liked it, actually - it made the whole process seem very seamless. And then while I was in my appointment the nutritionist was able to send a message out to the receptionist without having to wait on the phone.

Re: Well...

[sarcasma.livejournal.com]

Oo, plus, to those people still out there (and they are still out there) who are totally computer/IM unsavvy, it must seem like they're sending the message telepathically! Which would be good for Waiting-Room Crowd Control By Fear.

[goovie.livejournal.com]

we have a similar thing here, and it's a useful work tool sometimes, but its main purpose is for chatting with somepeople. :)

Re:

[listersgirl]

I don't think we're actually supposed to have it, but I justify it by the fact that then I'm not on the phone, and therefore I'm being a Very Good co-worker and not bothering my neighbours.

Or possibly I'm just being a slacker. :)

[tinkerer.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I could actually have an IM conversation that didn't involve liberal uses of the words 'dude', 'seriously', 'heh', and 'meep'.

I once wrote a program called meep. It incurred the wrath of all of my friends and colleagues. (I never used it on my enemies.)

[Sorry — I'm in a mood to toss random, unrelated comments into people's journals this evening! :)]

[magwhore.livejournal.com]

IM is our office standard for communication. Mostly because the people I work with either work from home or from our office in NYC. But we also chat within this office. My office is generally super unprofessional anyway but we keep it pretty good on IM though we also use it for gossip and bitching about the boss while he's on the phone chewing us out. Also, since we do software programming it's very very handy for giving out instructions or explanations which you can then log and keep for later (either blackmail or actual helpfulness).

Re:

[listersgirl]

bitching about the boss while he's on the phone chewing us out

This is my favourite thing about IM - the ability to complain about someone while they're still talking to you. :)