Professional Texting- Timing is Everything

I work in a restaurant with nine people in my department. It is a part time job and schedule flexibility is an excellent perk for college students. Everyone in my department has the freedom to trade shifts with one another, and this is primarily accomplished via the phone. We all have eachother's cell phone numbers and when we need a shift covered we typically send out a mass text to all employees in our department explaining which shift needs covering. Whoever texts that individual back first asking for their shift gets it. This mass texting can be helpful, but it has also proven to cause some work related issues.

When considering texting as a form of professional communication I have to consider all the reasons why this communication method can be considered professional. The text messages I recieve are work related, they are typically worded in a professional manner, and what sometimes occurs regarding the text messages has proven to cause some workplace conflict- depending on factors such as wording, timing, and frequency. A majority of students in this class have cell phone and texting abilities, and most of us have our phones near us at all times. Many of us have undoubtably experienced the 2 am text or phone call waking us up, and I doubt anyone truly enjoys being woken up by this, especially if its a text from a coworker asking you to cover a shift.

The recent professional communication I've had regards a situation similar to the one described above. When I recieve a text after midnight by a coworker asking me to cover a shift the following day, then again shortly after 6 AM because I haven't responded to the 1 AM text, my blood boils a bit. So naturally I respond "no I will not cover your shift, please do not text me during these hours of the day because I am sleeping." To me, this is a lot nicer than the "text me again and I will smash your phone into pieces" text I wanted to send. I recieve a text back (at about 8 AM when I am also usually sleeping) saying "I have you in a group contact and send a mass text to everyone in that group, it's too much work to text everyone individually, if you have a problem with it put your phone on silent, for real, like its not even a big deal." Ironically at this point I just laugh to myself at the absurdity of this person and drop it. However, when I am at work with this person there is obvious tension between us due to this texting ordeal.

Now that we are in a new age where texting has been incorporated into our work life I feel it is important for people to understand texting etiquette. The problem I have with these text messages wasn't what was said (initially atleast!), but the timing at which I recieved them. We have spent this class learning about what statements create underlying tones in professional writing, how to use ethos, pathos, and logos to convey messages to target audiences, etc., but what about the appropriate time to send messages using certain mediums? Email typically doesn't cause conflict depending on the time it arrives nor do letters. But what about phones?

We must consider texting as a form of professional communication and depending on what job you have, the timing of when we send these texts must be considered for it does have a negative affect on people, regardless of how well written the text is.

Classroom Exercise-Media Kit Analysis

Online Media Kit

Numerical Rhetoric

There is an interesting phenomenon about the human mind and the way it perceives advertisements. Everyone knows that $0.99 is much more appealing that $1.00, although we all also know how little a penny is worth these days, so what is the difference? Why do we become convinced to purchase, believing we're getting a deal, when logic tells us simultaneously that we are not? The answer, Rhetoric. 

Companies use logos to advertise appealing prices to the general public. If anyone has taken a psychology class you will understand how the brain perceives prices with a lower dollar amount as more appealing than a high dollar amount, and we almost completely do away with the remaining values in the number. It is similar to how we read words, as lnog as the frsit and lsat ltertes are in plcae, our mnid udnretsndas waht the wrod syas. We don't realize it, but we often overlook small details, such as the order letters are in, and more importantly, the value of what we purchase. 

Companies understand this phenomenon, and use it to trick the consumer into buying their product because they are a better deal that competitors. Is $0.99 really a better deal than $1.00? We know its not, but don't kid yourself, I'm certain everyone reading this has fallen prey to the $0.99 cent scam. Don't keep allowing your mind to throw out the numbers that come after the decimal, you'll be proving companies right by doing so. This issue becomes a battle of the logos, your logos vs. the business logos. You know $0.99 is the SAME THING as $1.00, you know that $7.20 is not $7.00, or that $9.80 is not $9.50. In the short run, this pricing manipulation we all do to convince ourselves to purchase something may seem ok, but in the long run, those cent values add up. 

So here's a suggestion, if you don't already have a piggybank, go out and buy one, or make one, and pay attention to the cent values, defeat the companies pricing! Put all the money you would have spent if you had allowed your logos to be overrun into your empty piggy bank. When you're ready, crack that thing open and find the true value of $0.01.