‘Hey’ would you react to this? Office WhatsApp chat sparks debate on ethics of business

With remote and hybrid work becoming all the rage in the aftermath of the pandemic, personal and professional lines have largely blurred as neither employers nor employees set boundaries on what is professionally acceptable and what is not.

Also, professional conversations tend to be most formal on traditional platforms of business communication such as email and office chats. So when employees use more personal messaging mediums like WhatsApp for communication, should the language used be formal or it is okay to use words like “Hey” to address seniors? This is a raging debate on Reddit after screenshots of an office chat went viral on the medium.

The screenshots of a purported office shared by a Reddit user ‘show u/Familiar_Mango_7509’ showed a boss giving a dressing down to an employee who responded with “Hey” to a query.

“Hi Shreyas, my name is Sandeep. Please don’t use the word ‘Hey’. It’s offensive for me”. “If you cannot remember my name, simply use “Hi”. “Other words you should never use professionally “Dude”, “Man”, only “hello” if you not targeting a wide audience for in a mail, to senior to you “chap”, “chick”.

This sparked a debate over what continues as formal and whether seniors can demand respect when they are not able to earn.

Commentators of the thread shared their own bizarre stories with respect to office conversations.