In Girlawhirl's office, computers are as essential to getting work done as the people who sit behind them. Emails keep everyone in the loop and software makes presentations not only look professional but also allows for them to be customized for individual clients…
Girlawhirl admits that she feels lost without her computer, but there's one thing she's never felt is appropriate for the office: IM-ing. She had one assistant who had a serious IM habit and didn't even bother to conceal it from Girlawhirl. When she looked over this woman's shoulder as they were updating a presentation or working on a layout of some sort, they'd constantly be interrupted with messages pertaining to her evening plans or gossip about boyfriends and favorite lip glosses.
But these days, Girlawhirl's noticed that IM-ing has become part of the office protocol for many people. She's even been told by one of her most important clients that it's his preferred mode of communication throughout the day, which initiated much discussion with her IT department. To support her need to have IM installed on the computers of the account executives and coordinators who work with this customer, Girlawhirl showed them a recent article by Kate Lorenz at CareerBuilder.com, “WAN2CHAT? 10 Tips For IM-ing at Work,” which explained how IM-ing really has become acceptable at the office.
And pretty soon, everyone in Girlawhirl's company got little IM widgets on their computer screens.