OMG, Did My Boss Just Text Me?
Calm is upon you. Your eyelids grow heavy, dipping several times. With one last deep breath… sleep starts to… A flash of light from the nightstand sends a glow across the wall! Your head instinctively snaps to the right to look and almost on its own your arm is reaching for your phone. A text captures your attention. It’s probably your brother out late or one of your group chats arguing again, you think. But no, it’s Linda from accounts or Brian, the project manager with some small trivial work item that could have likely waited until tomorrow. Yet, here you lay…in bed… thinking about it. 
As of 2024, texting has fully broken into the business world. Perhaps the remnants of “Covid era” of work from home culture spurred it along faster, but it was already inevitable. Almost every business or service you utilize is going to ask if you’re ok with receiving texts, whether it’s your dentist or your gym. So, what was once a medium reserved for our closest friends and family has now been opened to random strangers and/or scammers as well as our bank and business associates.
It wasn’t too long ago that cell phone plans came with a limited number of texts that you would often use sparingly for fear of incurring overage charges. But with the dawn of the smart phone and full keyboards, unlimited texting plans set us all free to text until the cows come home. Since that time, “calling friends” has almost become a dusty relic of the past. Every family has their group chat and every friend group the same. For the most part, until rather recently, texting was still reserved for the more casual circles of our lives.
An issue can arise when the casual nature of text culture starts moving into your professional sphere, as has been happening over the last decade. Texting with clients, candidates, co-workers, and bosses requires a different level of professionalism. You wouldn’t want to respond to a text from your boss requesting a project update with a frowny face and a fecal emoji, even if it does get the point across. Besides, some clients and co-workers are perfectly fine with texting, and more and more that is the case. However, it is still worth approaching in a more professional manner and being careful when using texts in the business world. It is generally best practice to start in traditional mediums, emails and calls, and then ask if updates and such are ok to be texted.
Texting is quick. According to research conducted by Textus.com, text messages have a response time of 12 minutes, compared to 90 minutes for email. It is also somewhat unobtrusive. That is to say, that we have essentially made it acceptable for people, no matter what they are doing, to look down at their phone and send or receive a text. It happens all the time now and calling it “unobtrusive” seems disingenuous because this practice certainly can be intrusive. Be they in a meeting, in the middle of a conversation, sitting in a restaurant, or mid embrace with their partner, texts do get seen and answered fast. According to a Forbes article “Why 2023 Is The Year For Business Texting” only 13% of people answer the phone, and only 19% of emails are ever opened—compared to 98% of SMS messages!
That instant and direct access to someone’s limited span of attention needs to be respected, really for EVERYONE but especially with clients, candidates, and business associates. You have been granted permission into a more intimate communication medium to hasten business along and you really should do everything you can not to abuse this access. To that end, here are several of the top things to consider if one would like to properly utilize business texting.
- Proofread - Texts fired off to friends and family often are half thought out and filled with spelling mistakes and autocorrected gibberish. What might be worth a giggle amongst your friends can be very embarrassing if sent to a business contact. Taking that extra time to think out and proofread any texts being used in a professional manner will be worth the time.
- Be Short & Concise - If a text requires you to scroll down to read, chances are it should have been an email. Texting isn’t really meant for walls of information spanning multiple paragraphs. They are really meant for exchange of concise details. If there is far more info to convey, consider sending an email and following up with a text to comment on that email.
- Respect Personal Time - Timing is a mixed bag with texting. If there is a huge deal pending, then getting that update at 11pm might be much appreciated. On the other hand, 11pm might not be the best time to bring up something that likely may not be addressed until tomorrow anyway.
- Confirm Recipient - Texting also tends to cross the line from work to personal in the use of our phones. Some may have two phones but more often than not, any work texting is going to be coming from your personal cell. As your contacts grow to include both friends and business contacts, be sure that you included the correct “KEVIN” in your cheeky friends group text and not “KEVIN R.”, your new client.
- Use Words, Grammar, and Punctuation - Emojis, gifs, pictures, and texting slang like OMG, LOL, LMK, TTYL can certainly work their way into business texting. Receiving a smiley face from a client or candidate can be a really good sign, but err towards more professional when you can. Much like dressing, you would rather show up at an event overdressed than under. When it comes to business texting, consider the use of actual words, proper grammar, and correct punctuation.
What’s the Point?
Business texting is FAST…and with that speed can come faster deals and even faster mistakes. However, by taking your time, respecting boundaries, and following some simple etiquette, texting can speed up your deal making and business communications without leading to unnecessary embarrassment or excessive annoyance. Plus, should casual boundaries continue to be pushed, then perhaps you can even start mixing in clever memes and GIFs on that new chain. That is…of course…until we all inevitably upgrade to the neural implants that may allow for even more instant communication via the hive mind.
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