A Horrifying Example of Texting

During a brief visit to San Antonio and Waco, Texas last week, I woke up early to prepare for the workshops I was leading. Although I rarely turn on the television, I decided to watch one of the early morning business shows to get some insight into the wildly fluctuating markets. To protect the guilty, I am not going to reveal the show or the anchors in question--not in this forum anyway.

Shortly after I tuned in, the anchors started to discuss a large bank deal that fell through when one bank rescued another and was subsequently outbid by a third. One of the anchors offhandedly asked a rhetorical question like, "How would you like to get THAT call in the middle of the night and find out the deal was off?" Without missing a beat, the female anchor said, "Oh, I wouldn't have called. I would have texted."

Horrifying. Absolutely horrifying.

This is EXACTLY the kind of behavior I was talking about in my last post. I wish I had a tape of the segment because it was so telling. It was such automatic response, there was no question she was completely serious. This is disturbing on a number of levels.
First, it's sad that people behave this way at all. Second, she obviously doesn't see anything inappropriate or she wouldn't have mentioned it to millions of viewers. Third, what a terrible behavior for a national, if not international, celebrity to validate.

Communicating that a deal has fallen through is a prime example of a conversation that absolutely should be handled in person. If it can't be handled in person, for whatever reason, a real-time alternative like telephone or videoconference may be acceptable. But voicemail, email, and text are NOT acceptable. The only acceptable use of text in a scenario like this would be an urgent message like:

"There have been some unexpected developments we need to talk about at your earliest convenience. This is urgent. Please call."

Even then, a phone call or voicemail communicating the same message would be preferable. A text saying, "The deal is off" is DEFINITELY NOT appropriate.

Think about this next time you consider taking the easy way out.