Are Your Office Conversations Like Internet Conversations?

I’ve been thinking a lot about office conversations ever since I read Nellie Bowles’ “When the Online Troll Is a Co-Worker” article in The New York Times.

In it, Bowles makes an opportune point, given that many of us have been working from home for almost a year now: “Office conversation at some companies is starting to look as unruly as conversations on the internet. That’s because office conversation now is internet conversation.”

Some of the behavior highlighted by Bowles is unsettling. She quotes a workplace consultant who says, “Employees are turning off their cameras, hiding behind avatars, becoming disrespectful. They’re being aggressive among each other.”

Bowles didn’t highlight any particular departments or industries in which bad employee behavior is rife, but the article made me ask, What’s the tenor of office conversations among IT people?

Also, I wondered, how has COVID changed the relationship between tech buyers and tech marketers?

Some thoughts and observations:

CIOs are paying attention to employee well-being

Savvy CIOs and other tech leaders invested a great deal of time and energy in 2020 supporting their workers’ emotional and mental health. As Carol Juel, CIO of Synchrony Financial, told The Wall Street Journal, “The new approach for CIOs must be technology plus empathy.”

They’ll continue to do the same in 2021. The question for tech marketers is, How can you help CIOs and other tech leaders with this staff challenge?

Communication methods have changed

The pandemic has affected how IT leaders at companies communicate, both internally and externally.

Let’s talk about internal channels. Ideally, IT leaders are using Zoom (or another video platform) and are leading with their camera on. After all, employees want to see their leadership. And managers and other IT leaders are making extra time to socialize with employees and establish meaningful bonds with them.

Externally, IT leaders can no longer rely on in-person gatherings like sales calls, live events and industry conferences for breaking product news. Tech sellers have adjusted, and many now use demand gen to fill their pipeline with leads.

Different times, different conversations

While the pandemic has affected the ability of tech marketers to reach IT leaders in-person, one thing hasn’t changed: IT leaders’ never-ending tech needs.

One of the key lessons that companies have learned from the pandemic is that a resilient and easy-to-use cloud platform—one that enables employees to collaborate and work productively wherever they are—is a business necessity. Strangely enough, the pandemic also forced many companies to accomplish organizational tasks that were once considered impossible, such as shifting a workforce to remote status, in a matter of days or weeks.

In 2021, companies will continue to focus on their remote work, SaaS and digital transformation plans. The end of the COVID-19 pandemic is nowhere in sight.

Yes, different times call for different conversations. Before you talk with an IT leader, invest the time to understand his or her company and how your proposed solution can make a strategic difference for them. And if it seems appropriate, share how you and your company have fared with office conversations during these difficult times—and be prepared to listen.