We haven't talked about women and work email in a while — and it occurred to me that we really haven't discussed all the other forms of written and online communication in the working world. So, what are your thoughts on work communication etiquette in 2023? What rules have you established to make your work communication reflect your personal brand (e.g., tone? grammar?), and what rules have you established for purposes of work-life boundaries?

So, some questions for everyone:

• In work email, what is your preferred signoff? When do you use last names and honorifics vs. first names? Do you have rules about when to CC vs. BCC someone? How do you pay attention to tone in your emails, if at all? (Do you have personal rules for when you check emails, or which emails you get notifications for on your screen or phone?)
• In messages on MS Teams, Slack, or other dedicated messaging apps, how proper is your grammar, capitalization, and spelling? Are you a fan of emojis or gifs? Do you feel like there's an etiquette around @-ing someone to bring them into the conversation, or about silencing your notifications in a way that is obvious to your coworkers? In general, do you prefer to be “always available” via messaging apps, or do you have set times each day when you check to see new conversations and weigh in on older ones?
• Text messages and work-related communications: Do you do it, and if so how often? (Does it matter if you have a dedicated phone for work-related communiques?) How proper is your grammar, etc., in texting? Group texts: yea or nay?
• (related: in Zooms and video communications, do you always have your camera on? How proper is your grammar, etc., in private DMs with coworkers as well as when asking a written question or giving a general statement?)

(And for all of this: Do you notice any sort of divide among your coworkers, bosses, and subordinates, whether generational or otherwise?)

My Rules around Work Communications

For my own $.02, I feel like a lot of these work communications come down to boundaries — but also office culture!

For emails, I keep seeing the meme (and relating to it hard) about how “I have said something serious, so I am putting a period. But we're friendly so I'm going to follow it with an exclamation! Signing off in the friendliest possible way, xx.” So I still do feel weird about tone, but maybe that's me. (My go-to signoff is generally “Best,” but a lot of times work-related emails are without greetings or signoffs these days.)

We at Corporette use Slack, and I don't have too many rules around it — I use proper grammar sometimes but I frequently just use lowercase thoughts. I do like emojis for tone (and yes, I totally overuse the sideways laughing emoji face), but I'll only use a gif if I'm thinking of something very specific and can find it quickly.

For text messages, I've always held that at the farthest distance from me for work-life boundaries — I have texted with coworkers, even back in my lawyer days, but for work-related things I prefer to keep communications relatively minimal. I also feel like text messages should have a measure of urgency (but obviously not as much as an actual phone call).

For Zooms, if I'm one of many people on a call, then I'll usually turn my camera off if possible — if and when I write anything in the chat, it tends to be more on the casual side.

Readers, how about you? What are your thoughts on the etiquette around work communication these days? What rules have you established to make your work communication reflect your personal brand (e.g., tone? grammar?), and what rules have you established for purposes of work-life boundaries?

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I recently saw a great Twitter thread on the best icebreakers for work — particularly to break into small groups on a virtual call — and I thought it would be a great discussion here. If you lead groups or manage new hires, do you employ icebreakers in any of your meetings or trainings? Have you ever been in a meeting where there was a memorable icebreaker, either great or awful?

The Best Icebreakers for Work

Some of the ones that came up in the Twitter thread included the following (my favorites from the list):

• Show off and explain your phone wallpaper.
• Tell us about a great sandwich you've had (the person who suggested noted that it led to a surprisingly wonderful conversation!)
• If you were invited as a guest on a podcast — unrelated to your profession — what would it be?
• What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever done for fun?
• What fictional universe would you most like to live in?
• You win the lotto, what first three things do you buy?
• When you were 5, what did you want to be when you grew up?
• Where is the most interesting/memorable place you have been in the shoes you are currently wearing?
• A former boss always liked to ask “What is a job you had that isn't on your resume?” You find out some really interesting things (said boss had taught Jazzercise to seniors!)
• If you were an action figure, what would your main accessory be?
• Which TV home would you live in and why?
• What skill do you bring to your team of survivors in the event of a zombie apocalypse?
• If you had to bring one dish to a potluck to tell people about yourself, what would it be?
• When your life story gets told, what medium should it be in?
• I ask everyone to share one good thing. It can be really small: Something they cooked that was great, got a stain out of a favorite shirt, planted their herbs for the summer, etc. When you do it every week, it turns into a really nice way to get to know people.
• What lingo/slang would you bring back if you could?
• What is your favorite way to eat potatoes?
• Would you rather be the best player on a losing team or the worst player on a winning team?
• What's your fave ice cream combination?
• Pick one fashion trend to disappear off the face of the earth and never make a comeback
• What place would you most like to travel to that you haven’t been? Or what’s your favorite place you’ve traveled to?
• In a box of assorted donuts, which one best describes you?
• If you were an action figure, what would your main accessory be?
• Tell us an unpopular opinion you have.
• Top karaoke song (and why)
• Last time you danced (and to what)
• What superpower would you like to have (flying, strength, invisibility, telekinesis, etc.)?
• What would you have on your concert rider?
• If you were going to die tomorrow, what would you eat this evening?
• What would you collect if money was no object?
• What's one thing you've done that would surprise your coworkers?
• What's your fight song?
• What's the craziest thing you saw in-person in the real world?
• What’s something you’ve dreamed of doing for a long time? Why haven’t you done it yet?
• What's your favorite condiment, and your least favorite condiment?
• If you go back to beginning of the panny, knowing what you know now, what one new personal skill would you develop?
• If you could have a “walk-up song” — your theme song that would play every time you entered anyplace — what would it be?

Some people described icebreakers that involved a lot of advance prep, such as asking people to provide the leader with a baby picture, and then everyone had to guess who was who at the meeting.

{related: how to steer conversation topics at work}

Another person noted that at one small meeting the leader literally brought out a block of ice and asked the team members to try to chip away at as much of it as possible. Other people suggested you have pictures of silly things that would cause disagreement, such as pictures of food that might be questionably a salad, soup, or sandwich, and ask people to make their case.

{related: how to become a leader: leadership resources for female executives}

For my $.02, I love the one about sandwiches — I think that would get a lot of amazing answers from travel experiences, childhood memories, and more — and would tell you a lot about the person answering, but without anything too too personal.

Some of my least favorite icebreakers are the ones that are a bit inane — what kind of powdered donut are you and why — or the ones that are just kind of boring, like showing a picture of a pet.

{related: party-appropriate conversation topics}

Readers, how about you? Which are your favorite icebreakers for work? What are your least favorite icebreakers for work?

(Readers have shared this list of icebreakers (via Museum Hack) in the past!)

Stock photo via Stencil.

The post The Best Icebreakers for Work appeared first on Corporette.com.

Today, let's discuss: What is the “Zoom shirt” for women? There was an interesting article the other day about a guy who has worn the same shirt for every Zoom call he's been on since March. He started doing it just to be funny, and see who noticed, but then:

He has worn it for video calls on 70 consecutive days. This was not his plan. “My ego thought someone would notice,” said Mr. Farrell, the executive vice president of the comedy empire Funny or Die.

No one did. Not one of the half-dozen co-workers he sees every day via screen said anything. Neither did the 50-odd entertainment industry executives he Zooms with week after week. This is a man who once owned 210 shirts because, as the host of a design show on TLC, he couldn’t have viewers see him repeat.

Finally, the terrible secret of this single garment became too much for Mr. Farrell to bear. He began confiding in colleagues about his Zoom Shirt.

“Every time I’ve outed myself, they say, ‘Oh, yeah,’ and they pull up two shirts hanging on the back of their chair,” he said.

My husband is definitely guilty of this — he'll put on a collared shirt or a polo shirt in place of, say, his latest geek Dad shirt.

{Update: we went on a hunt for cute Zoom tops!}

(Psst: Do check out our recent roundup of the best tips for video conference calls!)

This post contains affiliate links and Corporette® may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. For more details see here. Thank you so much for your support!

Sweater Blazer (regular & petite — most colors 58% off!)

J.Crew Factory Sweater Blazer (reader favorite!)

Sophie open-front sweater-blazer (at J.Crew and, sometimes, Nordstrom)

Readers, how about you — do you find yourself reaching for something special to wear for Zoom calls? What is “the Zoom shirt” for women, in your opinion?

Stock photo via Deposit Photos / VadymPastukh. 

The post What’s Your “Zoom Shirt”? appeared first on Corporette.com.

Over the last month or so, a lot of us have taken part in many, many more video conference calls than usual, whether Zoom or otherwise. (You've probably noticed that Zoom has now accomplished what Skype had done pre-pandemic and has become a verb.) We've talked about video interview tips in the past, as well as how to put your best self forward during a Skype call — but it's been too long! For obvious reasons, this seemed like a great time to share some advice (beyond the basics of “be on time,” and “please mute yourself when you're not talking”). If you're looking for technical tips, see the “Further Reading” links at the bottom of this post. Readers, what are your best video conferencing tips? What etiquette or professional judgment issues are you seeing? What are your best tips for video conference calls?  

N.B.: Feel free to ignore the appearance-related tips below. We know some readers are interested in that sort of info while others of you currently don't have the energy to worry about how you look on video calls — or don't really care if you're not looking your best. And that's fine! If you're getting up every morning and putting on a full face of makeup, that's fine too — whether or not you're going to see anyone that day. Maintaining parts of your regular workday routine can be comforting and provide some much-needed structure at a time like this, too. (In a recent news post, we shared an article called “The Psychology of Wearing Makeup When No One Can See You,” which is an interesting read, too.) 

One more important note: If you're not already aware (perhaps you're avoiding reading the news right now for the sake of your mental health), you should know that Zoom has faced serious criticism lately for several issues: VTC hijacking/Zoom-bombing, leaks of users' personal information, misleading marketing about end-to-end encryption, and other security flaws. Some companies (and schools) are ditching it in favor of more secure options.

This post contains affiliate links and Corporette® may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. For more details see here. Thank you so much for your support!

Here are 7 tips for video conference calls:  

Buy headphones to use on calls: If you have to join frequent video calls, you may not want to rely on your computer's mic and speakers — consider leveling up. At the very least, use earbuds with a built-in mic, or even better, buy some higher-quality headphones. A noise-canceling feature is a bonus. Here are some recs from PC Mag and CNET — and if you only want a mic, here's a random rec from me: the one my son uses for playing Minecraft with friends. We pored over Amazon reviews recently (and verified them using Fakespot) and bought this one, which cost $25 and has worked great for a month so far.

Make yourself easy to identify: Not only should you let the meeting organizer know whether or not to expect you — that's basic courtesy — but when you enter the meeting, change your listed identity to your full name. Coworkers who haven't met you in person will appreciate it, as will the person taking meeting minutes. This is especially important if you're audio-only — I've been in Zoom meetings where I've scrolled past the attendees to see a few people who were simply black rectangles with a phone number. Depending on the size of the meeting and who's on, you may also want to identify yourself before you speak — again, especially if you're joining by phone. (That tip reminds me of this hilarious parody of a conference call — an oldie-but-goodie.)

Consider a virtual background: Your average coworker isn't going to judge you for a messy room, but if you're feeling self-conscious about it — or need a fun little pick-me-up — there are a ton of virtual backgrounds you can use for Zoom, including built-in ones. (Here's how to use them.) For example, in a recent news post, we linked to free backgrounds from West Elm, which feature photos from various stylish homes (including the loft from Queer Eye!). If you're using Microsoft Teams and want to downplay your home clutter, background images are provided, or you can use the “Blur” function to slightly blur whatever's behind you.

Add a third piece to your outfit: In a post last year on what to wear to a very casual office, we referred to the classic “third-piece” rule of fashion. (Plot twist: That very casual office is now your home!) If you're wearing a basic top and pants in the morning (well, real pants or PJs — whatever) but want to feel more professional for a video conference call later in the day, consider adding a blazer, cardigan, or jacket, or an accessory such as a scarf or statement necklace.

Another easy element to add last minute is a bright lip color, which we mentioned in our now very relevant post on the best makeup products to fake a good night's sleep. 

Try a filter — or just look like you're using one: Zoom's Touch Up My Appearance filter gives a “soft focus,” which makes me think of ’80s glamour shots but actually is pretty subtle. (You can see a couple of examples of “before and afters” in this article.) For a “real world” way to soften your appearance a bit, make sure you're backlit instead of directly facing a sunny window or harsh artificial light. (Don't overdo this — a mysterious silhouetted figure is a bit too dramatic for a work Zoom call.)

If you wear foundation, note that Makeup For Ever's bestselling Ultra HD Invisible Cover Foundation was “originally created to appear flawless to the naked eye and on advanced HD cameras.” Hmm, intriguing. 

Refresh your hair in five minutes: Over at CorporetteMoms this week, April recommended her favorite dry shampoo from Psssst! (it's also Kat's favorite dry shampoo) and also mentioned this popular option from Living Proof. Take a few minutes before your video call to use a dry shampoo and you'll feel less self-conscious about everyone seeing your not-exactly-freshly-washed hair. Here's a helpful tip from Vogue: Wait two minutes after spraying, so that the product can absorb the oils in your hair, then use a boar-bristle brush.

Quickly ditch the shine: If you haven't managed to wash your face and/or shower today, and your skin is looking a bit oily, take 10 seconds to use a blotting paper. My old standby is Clean & Clear Oil Absorbing Sheets (available at Amazon, Target, drugstores, and so on). I've loved these things for years and years, and they make a big difference. (I just wish they were a bit more subtle for using when I'm out and about — their bright blue color is anything but.) I've bought a copycat product from a cheaper brand, but it didn't seem to work quite as well. If you want a more upscale option, you can find Fenty Beauty's Invisimatte Blotting Paper at Sephora.

What are your favorite tips for video conference calls? Any fun Zoom backgrounds you've found? How about embarrassing mishaps from video calls to share, either yours or a coworker's? 

Further Reading: 

• The do’s and don’ts of video conferencing [The Verge]
• Zoom tips and tricks: 13 hidden features to try [CNET]
• Zoom vs. Microsoft Teams vs. Google Meet: Which Top Videoconferencing App Is Best? [PC Mag]
• It’s Not Just You: In Online Meetings, Many Women Can’t Get a Word In [NYT]

Stock photo via Pexels / ThisIsEngineering.

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