You're messaging a manager you've never chatted with before. Your team uses Slack very casually, but you don't know this manager's style. What is the best approach?
AMatch your team's casual style immediately, since that's the established platform culture
BStart more formally and calibrate your tone once you've read how the manager communicates
CUse email instead, since chat is too informal for manager communication
DKeep all messages very short and use emojis to signal friendliness
The explainer states: 'When in doubt, err toward more formality; it's easier to become more casual once you've read the culture than to recover from an inappropriately casual opening.' Tone is context-dependent — the platform's general culture is less important than the specific relationship and role. Option A ignores that individual relationships have their own registers within a broader platform culture.
Question 2 Multiple Choice
Your colleague sends you messages throughout the day and gets frustrated when you don't respond within minutes, even during focused work time. What best describes the underlying problem?
ASlack should only be used for urgent messages that require immediate responses
BYou are failing professional chat etiquette by not responding promptly to workplace messages
CYour colleague is treating an asynchronous tool as if it were synchronous, creating mismatched expectations
DChat platforms like Slack are inherently synchronous and both parties should honor that expectation
Chat apps sit between synchronous (real-time phone call) and asynchronous (email) communication, and the mismatch in expectations — not the tool itself — causes friction. The explainer explicitly describes this dynamic: 'one person treats Slack as synchronous and their colleague treats it as asynchronous.' The fix is explicit communication about availability, not mandatory immediate replies.
Question 3 True / False
Using MOST CAPS in a chat message is an acceptable way to emphasize important information.
TTrue
FFalse
Answer: False
ALL CAPS reads as shouting in text-based communication — a convention now so universal that it creates unintended aggression even when the intent is emphasis. To add emphasis without aggression, use platform formatting tools (bold, italics) or rephrase the sentence to make the important point stand out naturally.
Question 4 True / False
It is acceptable to set your status to 'do not disturb' during focused work time, even if colleagues may be waiting for responses.
TTrue
FFalse
Answer: True
Good chat etiquette includes proactively managing availability expectations rather than going silent and leaving others wondering. Setting a status indicator and communicating your availability directly respects both your own focused work time and your colleagues' need to plan around your responsiveness. The key is communication — signal that you're unavailable rather than simply not responding.
Question 5 Short Answer
Why is it considered poor chat etiquette to send a message that only says 'hi' and then wait for acknowledgment before stating your actual question?
Think about your answer, then reveal below.
Model answer: It creates an unnecessary round-trip interaction that wastes the recipient's time. The recipient must stop what they're doing to acknowledge the greeting, then wait again for the actual message — two interruptions instead of one. Stating the full question immediately collapses two exchanges into one and lets the recipient respond on their own schedule.
This pattern imposes synchronous call-like behavior on an asynchronous medium. It's the chat equivalent of calling someone and saying 'can I ask you something?' before asking. The recipient is now waiting and unable to ignore the notification until they know what is being asked. Immediately stating the question respects the recipient's time and the asynchronous nature of the medium.