I woke up to a text the other morning from one of my employees. The text had been sent at 12:30 AM! Now, I turn my phone off at night (other than making allowances for emergencies), so it did not wake me, but I have to admit to being a bit annoyed when the text was received. The message was sent from an individual I hired about a year ago. I hired them but they are supervised by someone else, so we do not talk every day. This person is from Gen Z. I am mentioning it because I believe this incident has to do something with the age and the generation they belong to.
Now, a few days prior to the text, I had received a message in my office that this individual wanted to talk to me. I reached out to them and told them that I am available from that time till I leave for vacation. Everyone at my office knew when I will be leaving, because we have had discussions over it. This person also knew that I would be leaving in a few days.
The morning I would be leaving for vacation is when the text was sent. The text stated several important things about them and the things they felt they needed to change in their work. That individual apologized for sending a text this late, but still chose to send it.
Now, I ended up picking up the phone and calling this individual to discuss her needs. We had a pleasant conversation, but the whole incident got me thinking.
We live in the information world. There are plenty of ways to communicate with our team. Sometimes text or WhatsApp might be appropriate. Email is still a very useful tool as well. However, there are just some times that a good old fashioned phone call (or a face-to-face) meeting is more appropriate. When it comes to important matters with your team members, perhaps I am old fashioned, but a conversation using your voice just seems like the professional
thing to do.
I love technology, but technology sometimes needs to takes a backseat to real human interaction? What happened to those good ‘ol sitdown conversations with another human being?
For more information on this subject, please listen to The Appraiser Coach Podcast Episode:
