LOL @ Work

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

Is it ever ok to say "LOL" to someone at work (via electronic communication)?

  • Yes - LOL away

  • No

  • Who cares? No more slow loading top ad!


Results are only viewable after voting.

ISAslot

Platinum Member
Jan 22, 2001
2,891
108
106
Lync is becoming 'Skype for Business'. It will have the skype smileys! The Lync ones are so awful. I'm excited.
 

Smoblikat

Diamond Member
Nov 19, 2011
5,184
107
106
In an IM abbreviations are OK, but emails should always be considered public and anything you say can and will be used against you.
 

clamum

Lifer
Feb 13, 2003
26,256
406
126
It would depend on the work environment, of course, but in my experience I've been pretty informal with online chat after I've gotten to know people.

Two jobs ago there was absolutely no rules and our convos could be filled with profanity and goofy emotes (using MSN Messenger; getting a crappy task would usually prompt the person to put in a pic of his head followed by a pistol emote pointed at it).

At my current job, there's no profanity but I'll use "lol" sometimes. I also have a fondness for the (bah)/sheep emoticon in Lync, so much so that when everyone came to wish me a happy birthday and give me a card signed by everyone, it came with a picture of a guy riding a sheep like a horse with my head from my access badge pasted over the original guy's, LOL.
 

AmdEmAll

Diamond Member
Aug 27, 2000
6,699
9
81
Lync at my work also.. remember that they most likely save all of your conversations.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
70,584
13,805
126
www.anyf.ca
I'd say it's fine. If it's considered inappropriate then you'll never believe what someone at my work said in an email sent to all employees. HR hates him!

Someone is selling sausages for some kind of fund raiser and sent an email to all employees about it and at the end put something to this effect:

"Ask [a woman at work] about it, she said she likes my sausage!"

I LOLed so much when I saw that. Today, there was an apology email saying it may have been inappropriate. You think? lol

Chats are monitored though, so you do have to watch what you say in them, and avoid non work related talk. Not sure if someone actively looks at it or not though.
 

rudeguy

Lifer
Dec 27, 2001
47,351
14
61
Lync at my work also.. remember that they most likely save all of your conversations.

I don't care about anyone at work sees my chats. I only care about them ending up in front of a customer. My emails regularly end up with customers, so those are professional.
 

ImpulsE69

Lifer
Jan 8, 2010
14,946
1,077
126
One time we were in a share over Lync with another group showing our team some administrative stuff (that none of us really cared about except the manager). After it was over, the two females on the other end of the call forgot to turn off sharing and commenced to trash talking the team and our boss, explicitly calling out him and another member with some pretty unprofessional comments.

Our team was just sitting there on the phone watching our screens in awe.

Ohh was that apology call uncomfortable for them :)

As for my IM dialog....let's just say Lync is always shaking its finger at me for cursing :/ Our chats are saved in case it is needed for something but otherwise, we can chat about whatever as long as it isn't inappropriate. I am usually always cracking jokes and being sarcastic in them during serious calls - w/o being disrespectful.
 
Last edited:

Red Storm

Lifer
Oct 2, 2005
14,233
234
106
We have Lync, but it only ever gets used to quickly send relevant URLs to one another.
 

notposting

Diamond Member
Jul 22, 2005
3,498
33
91
Tangent:

I do low-volt tech work. Was on a long assignment at a client's HQ and one of the things we would get to do is handle setup for remote video conferencing when they were doing job interviews and such.

So we would contact the remote location, make sure the equipment/room was ready, get connected, and then wait. Camera, mic on. Speaker...muted. :p Interesting to see people when the camera is "off".

Also, they always jump when the disembodied voice greets them :D
 

rudeguy

Lifer
Dec 27, 2001
47,351
14
61
Tangent:

I do low-volt tech work. Was on a long assignment at a client's HQ and one of the things we would get to do is handle setup for remote video conferencing when they were doing job interviews and such.

So we would contact the remote location, make sure the equipment/room was ready, get connected, and then wait. Camera, mic on. Speaker...muted. :p Interesting to see people when the camera is "off".

Also, they always jump when the disembodied voice greets them :D

I would get fired in 30 seconds flat if I had access to that.
 

cbrunny

Diamond Member
Oct 12, 2007
6,791
406
126
Lync at my work also.. remember that they most likely save all of your conversations.

Really? Did not know they had this ability..... Is there a way I can check to find out if they're using this function?
 

Rage187

Lifer
Dec 30, 2000
14,276
4
81
We use Lync for light smack talking, but use our phones for the good stuff.

Some dumbasses here talk about drugs and girls over Lync. Genius!
 

MixMasterTang

Diamond Member
Jul 23, 2001
3,167
176
106
Really? Did not know they had this ability..... Is there a way I can check to find out if they're using this function?

You should just operate under the assumption that everything you do on a work device is monitored and recorded.
 

Insomniator

Diamond Member
Oct 23, 2002
6,294
171
106
We use jabber, everyone says lol, brb, ttyl, haha etc...

I will say it is weird talking to middle aged people via IM's... somehow they manage to sound old even through text.
 

MixMasterTang

Diamond Member
Jul 23, 2001
3,167
176
106
So, what's the deal with Lync? How is this better than Skype?

It's a corporate IM application, conversations between coworkers on the same lync server(s) will never leave the network like skype does. It also integrates into Active Directory and Exchange so you can easily pull up any coworker. You can also add outside contacts if your lync server is setup to allow it.
 

Belegost

Golden Member
Feb 20, 2001
1,807
19
81
Yea, no idea what OPs problem with Lync is, it's quite good.

Here it's well integrated with our Exchange, so it has a list of my daily meetings on it, it's tied in with our conference call system so you can join a conference call through VoIP with it (really useful when I'm not in the office) screen sharing works great and can share either the whole screen, or specific windows/monitors, can record video/audio of meetings/presentations, logs IM conversations and puts them in an Outlook folder for later reference, can do group conversations on the fly or easily make persistent chat rooms.
 

Linflas

Lifer
Jan 30, 2001
15,395
78
91
Why is Lync terrible? just makes you sound cool to say?

He has obviously never used any Novell products like Groupwise messenger. Talk about a steaming pile of defecation Novell Messenger comes to mind immediately.