Following a colleague on Twitter for professional reasons and yet keep reading their Tweets that they’re “at the soccer game!” or “so hungover!”? Still getting e-mails from people in all caps? How about that coworker who, in the middle of an informal business meeting, but a meeting nonetheless, is blatantly texting or checking voicemails?
With the rash of technology we follow and technological devices we use, we should develop some technology etiquette guidelines.
I read somewhere (sorry, can’t remember where) that we should employ the crossword puzzle test. If you’re somewhere where you wouldn’t pull out a crossword puzzle and start filling in the boxes, you shouldn’t be texting or answering e-mails. Some of my other personal etiquette guidelines are to remember that a real person should be put first before technology, and that we should only send relevant e-mails (especially considering that the average person receives thousands of e-mails a day).
