I’d happily be Facebook buddies with my current managers, but I would prefer to be boiled in hydrochloric acid than to have that kind of exposure to one of my more troublesome recent bosses.

Still, I’d hate to see this become some kind of a broad-brush taboo like office dating has become in some circles.

Mike Klein
The Hague, NL

I suggest that people whose careers can benefit from networking on sites such as Facebook or profession related forums keep a professional persona. As an outlet for fun and more socializing, participate in other website forums and social networking sites–and do not mix the, too. Be careful about how much information (especially personal information) that you provide on the internet, period. Too many people, reveal participation in other websites (IM address, webpages, photo sites) that makes it easy to figure out one’s identity, which renders a screen name useless.
People should designate specific sites and forums for business and others for pleasure or play.

Funny you should mention this. I’ve been thinking lately about the many new and unusal forms of communication–most of which I don’t like but at least understand their value to their particular audiences.
Tagging (also known as graffiti) is a form of communication that marks territories, gives the tagger a sense of achievement/purpose and costs taxpayers a lot of money to remove. Tagging increases during the summer months when kids aren’t in school and get bored with “nothing to do.” But, similar to the need for texting, tagging says: “I EXIST!!”
Tattoos also are communication, self-identification, symbols of self-worth, messages about life styles and loved ones. Their permanence bothers me because I think there are some people who would like to have an eraser when they wake up the next morning — or when they turn 50 and wonder why the hell they did it.
Piercings have a place in there somewhere — I’m just not sure where. Pierced ears started out as adornment and now — at its most extreme — communicate excess, lack of good judgement and an ability to (a) withstand the pain of creating new holes and (b) plenty of time to load up all those rings.
So, yes, piercings and clothings say a lot about a person. I don’t think we have the definitions in place yet to know what they say.

There is some line where a style of attire and grooming becomes a distraction in the workplace, but some common sense needs to applied here. And some fairness.

As communicators, I think we should not loose the focuss first of all in the objectives we pursue with communications, which should be, at least amongst them, to increase or maintain a high level of engagement and belonging pride amongst employees. So Intranet should be seen as one more communication medium within the internal communications strategy, and as the official source of information of the company available for everyone or even for groups with restricted access in some sections.

The way information is posted there should be in a different shape from how it is published in electronic screens or printed magazines and newsletters. Every medium has specific guidelines for publication depending on the different types of audiences it is addressed to.

Intranet, as every other internal medium, should reflect the strategy and the objectives communications and the company are pursuing together, and it should be supported by other type of media like portals to talk to the CEO, teleconferences with him or town hall meetings. Key messages should be present always in every publication in every internal medium.

Only with this alignment of key messages and strategy we could say that Intranet can really be a useful medium to contribute to achieve the communications goals, and then turn into a helpful tool rather than into our enemy or murderer.

Erika Ruiz

Erika Ruiz

It is a way of letting employees know them and put themselves closer to them.

For example, I remember when my current CEO had just a few months in our company, during a meeting with sales force in a very warm place, he went out of the room and returned with a refrigerator full of beers for everyone.

He also began showing himself during corporate events or meetings with employees without a tie and dressed in a casual way. That went perfectly well with his message of wanting to turn the company into a more dynamic and modern one.

He opened forums to talk to him directly through Intranet, telephone conferences and town hall meetings.

I think he did a very good job in taking his message across not ontly through what he said in formal communication channels, but also through this symbolic communication.

Erika