Hey, Dude, and Man not allowed: Casual Whatsapp conversations that may infuriate your boss
Premium- Recently, a young professional pointed out he got pulled up for greeting his boss with a hey on Whatsapp
With WhatsApp conversations now being a legitimate form of office communications, most have moved on from the strict formal language. But there are few who would rather stick to the old norms.
Recently, sharing such an instance, a young professional posted a WhatsApp conversation with his boss on Reddit where he pointed out he got pulled up for greeting his boss with a "hey". He captioned the screenshot as, "How do you react to this? and how the hell is 'Hey' isn't professional?"
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In the screenshot, when asked about the submission of a particular test, the subordinate replies by saying, "Hey, No, not yet."
Infuriated by this, the boss wrote back, "Please don't use the word 'hey'. It's offensive for me. If you can't remember my name, simply use 'Hi'." He then went on to explain to his subordinate what other words should not be used professionally like 'Dude' and 'Man'.
Even as most employees would apologize and end the conversation there, the Reddit user defended himself by trying to explain. He said, "Well, considering that we are having a conversation over WhatsApp and not over LinkedIn or a mail chain. I'm just being casual as you are texting me on my personal number. And coming to being professional I'm not the one being offended."
To this, the boss replied, "Whatsapp is not personal space anymore, it has been used for business. I am not insisting my ideology on you. If you understand it, fine; or you will understand it sooner or later," followed by a smiling emoji.
Reacting to this, one person wrote, "I'd be calling him 'chap' in literally every communication."
"Agreed. You don't use a social media app like WhatsApp to have a professional relationship over the Internet. They should write a properly-formatted email. And that's "Mr NutWrench" to them, too," another person shared.
A third one wrote, "My old boss told me "what's up?" is disrespectful... Dude, you're calling me, you clearly need something... What's up?"
Another one quipped, "I like. how hey is unprofessional but emojiis are fine"