March 19, 2001

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Instant Messaging Karma

By Rusty Weston   (rweston@cmp.com)

Instant messaging hacked into my life a few months ago like a persistent, dry cough that even the stiffest antibiotics can't knock out. And that's OK, really--I'm learning to navigate through the stream of interruptions. Sometimes I feel like I'm in a glass cage and the guards are poking at me. The only difference is that I can poke back at them.

If you haven't experienced this technology, here's a brief primer. Let's say you're crunching some numbers. You're not planning to stop and read every E-mail that comes across the transom or pick up the phone when it rings. But an instant message from your boss may pop up in a box on your screen saying, "Where's that report?" Or, "Hey, I thought you said you'd turn in that column in by now?" Or, preferably, "C'mon, we're going to lunch."

Once you "de-cloak" yourself in cyberspace so your name appears on other people's buddy lists, you have to be ready to plug your fingers into the digital dike. You might get no messages all day or three at once. And it's certainly a distraction. Yet it could be worse. You could have an office in one of those dot-com nightmare workspaces where there are no cubicles or doors and anyone can tiptoe up and gaze over your shoulder without having to knock.

The practice of instant messaging has been around for at least three decades, but in the past year or two IP-based messaging technology (with easy interfaces) from America Online, Yahoo, MSN, Juno, ICQ and others has elevated this channel from an offbeat consumer idea to a mainstream part of corporate communications. I've found that as a management tool, it has significant pros and cons, yet overall messaging has proven itself invaluable.

Ways in which it's invaluable:

• You're on a long conference call. But co-workers are waiting on your quick approval to move ahead. They send you a quick note or a Web link, and you reply back yea or nay.
• You're on a conference call with vendors, partners, or clients, and you can discuss strategy in real time with a co-worker who isn't in your room. And, of course, you can also make jokes or commiserate--the cyber equivalent of doodling during meetings.
• You need to reach someone immediately. Not everyone reads E-mail or picks up voice mail messages. It's hard to miss an instant message. I've used it for just-in-time information when I'm on a phone call with someone else. Of course, your knowledgeable co-worker needs to be hooked up at the same time, which requires a dose of luck.

Ways in which it's frightening:

• You make an ill-considered remark. You just hit reply and whoosh, your ill-considered remark is out there. On the other hand, it's better to screw up on IM than E-mail where it's easier to forward your missive across cyberspace. Ever notice how easy it is to misconstrue a brief remark, especially jokes, over E-mail?
• As a manager, your presence on online buddy lists sets a leadership example. If you're online late, it's comforting to those who must stay longer to complete their tasks. Of course, you can always just leave the lights on even when nobody's home. You can also set up an auto-reply saying, "Sorry, Bob, I'm on the phone."
• You're multitasking. Co-workers can hear you tap-tapping on the keyboard when they're chatting with you on the phone. Are you IMing someone else? If so, whom? What are you saying and why? True, multitasking is a slippery slope. If you get more caught up in your IM conversation than you are in your telephone call, Houston won't be able to bail you out of this problem. Invariably, multitaskers get busted for not paying attention! If they ever publish a book on bad management hygiene, instant messaging will rate a special chapter.

And now, of course, there's voice-enabled (and soon voice-activated) instant messaging and other peer-to-peer computing nightmares. So the problem of instant messaging karma is only getting worse. Who would bother to send their own boring voice when they can send Hannibal the Cannibal's?

The practice of instant messaging goes back longer than anyone I know cares to remember. But if you know who invented instant messaging, please drop us an E-mail so we can reward you with your name in digital kleig lights.

Rusty Weston, editor of InformationWeek Research and InformationWeek.com, is a former card-carrying member of the American Statistical Association.

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