More Instant Messaging At Work

from the in-case-you-hadn't-noticed dept

It seems to be popular these days to write an article about "instant messaging at the office". The latest one, is an article from the Washington Post that discusses the trend of IM at the office in quite a bit of detail. They point out that IMs are "both a blessing and a curse" for many offices. It's a great way to communicate, but can also lead to an amazing amount of procrastination, and non-work related conversations. The article makes the point that many businesses are monitoring IM uses more and more - though, they also point out that too much monitoring is likely to drive employees away. There's also a number of questions about storing instant messages, and whether or not a company should (or whether individuals are - or the companies providing the IM software themselves are archiving messages). In general, I think people are overreacting to the "negative" potentil of IM at the office. I've been using it for personal and professional communications for over five years, and I think most attempts to limit it would only cause more harm than good.

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