Headline, February 14 2021/ ''''' '' TROLL TEAMS TRYST '' ''''

'''' '' TROLL TEAMS

 TRYST '' ''''

WE HAVE PEOPLE FIGHTING LIKE TEENAGERS ONLINE AT WORK. This can be a very serious thing. With more people working from home, poor online behaviour is seeping in waves.

''AT THE BEGINNING OF THE PANDEMIC - everyone patted themselves on their back - like : ''Oh, look, productivity has not fallen. We've transitioned to digital. We've done things we were seeking to do -

Streamline processes, move things online, decentralize decision making.'' But they were forgetting about culture,'' said Jennifer Howard-Grenville, a professor of organization studies at the University of Cambridge. ''Now the reality of all that has hit.''

When message boards, chat rooms and Facebook become work tools, off-color humour is more common. Aggressive political discussions that would be out of place among cubicles now seem fine.

The hierarchy of physical space disappears when everyone is a username : Confronting senior management does not require a walk and a knock on the door, and confronting colleagues does not require sitting next to them the rest of the day.

''I've seen bullying by text in the various kinds of internal instant messenger platforms, and we've seen an uptick in those kinds of complaints coming our way,'' said John Marshall, an employment and civil rights lawyer in Columbus, Ohio, Harassment from colleagues in internal messaging platforms is not new, he added, but now there is more of it.

Gustavo Razzetti, who gets hired by companies to improve their work culture, has noticed a change since the pandemic began last year : more political brawls, more managers loosing control of their employees, a curious mix of hyper engagement and lack of empathy.

''Employees are turning their cameras off, hiding behind avatars, becoming disrespectful,'' said Mr Razetti, whose consulting firm is called Fearless Culture. ''They're becoming aggressive among each other.''

Office conversation in some companies is starting to look as unruly as conversation on the Internet. That's because office conversation now is Internet conversation. Many companies have been working online for nearly a year, with plans to continue well into 2021.

And just as people are bolder behind keyboards on workplace messaging platforms like Microsoft Teams and Slack - with all the good and all the bad, but with a lot more legal liability.

Work culture experts say there are steps the companies can take before the lawyers get involved. These are among them : closely monitoring large chat groups, listening to complaints, reminding employees they are on the job and not bantering with friends, and being aware that a move to a virtual work force can expose new issues like age discrimination.

At a lot of American companies, this is the first time colleagues have had to come to terms with working and socializing almost entirely online.

There is likely no going back, Nearly half of the U.S. labor force is working from home full time, according to the Stanford University economist Nicholas Bloom. and 67 percent of companies experts working from home to be permanent or long lasting, according to a study by S&P Global, which provided financial analysis.

These new work tools were designed to look and feel like messaging boards and social media. Workers notice that and adopt similar behaviors, researchers say. The performative nature of Slack, where colleagues fuel discussions in vast chat rooms by adding emojis, for example, means frenzies grow and are hard to contain once they start.

''Employees ask themselves, 'Well, what do I know that's similar to Slack?' '' said Mark D. Agars, a California State University professor who studies organizational psychology.

''It's Reddit board. So we draw on these norms. And those norms are every different than professional norms.''

Mr. Razzetti has a protocol for emergency work-chat situations. First, he shuts down the problematic Slack channel. Then he breaks the team up for an intervention. Colleagues are asked to reflect alone.

Next, they can meet with another colleague one on one to share their their feelings, then in groups of four. Finally those small groups can begin to reintegrate into a fresh Slack channel.

Some of the professors and consultants silent time to read something together during a video meeting before discussing, and giving workers 90 seconds to vent about politics before beginning to a politics-free workday.

The Honor and Serving of the Latest Global Operational Research on Trolls and Co-Workers, continues. The World Students Society thanks author Nellie Bowles.

With respectful dedication to all Employees online, Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all prepare and register for Great Global Elections on The World Students Society : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter - !E-WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011 :

''' Home High '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless