How an rtCamper communicates with other individuals not only reflects on them as an individual but also on rtCamp
Communicating Language at rtCamp
Contents
We encourage diversity in linguistic groups. Since we have rtCampers contributing from different parts of the world, we encourage you to communicate in English instead of local languages, as it’s more inclusive to all. All written communication happens in English, even when sent one-on-one because sometimes you need to forward an email or chat.
Email (Gmail)
- Always reply to emails, even when no action is needed. This lets the other person know that you received it. A thread is done when there is a single word reply, such as OK, thanks, or done.
- If you forward an email without other comments, please add FYI (for your information) or FYA (for your action). If you forward an external request with FYA, it doesn’t mean that the company should do whatever is proposed, it just means the person who forwarded it will not follow up on the request themselves and expects you to do so instead.
- Emails are asynchronous, for example, if your manager emails you on a weekend, it is fine to reply during the workweek.
- If an email is or has become urgent, feel free to ping people via chat referencing the subject of the email.
- Use video calls if you find yourself going back and forth in an issue/via email or over chat.
Chat (Slack)
- If you use chat, please use a public channel whenever possible, and mention the person you want to reach if it is urgent. This ensures it is easy for other people to chime in, and easy to involve other people, if needed.
- In chat, try to keep the use of keywords that mention the whole channel to a minimum. They should only be used for pings that are both urgent as well as important. By overusing channel mentions, you make it harder to respond to personal mentions in a timely manner, since people get pinged too frequently.
- It is perfectly fine to ask as many questions as you have, but ask them on a group/channel so many people can answer them and many people see the answer (so use issues or public chat channels instead of private messages or one-on-one emails) and make sure you try to document the answers.
Zoom
We use this platform for internal and external calls, please ensure you use your company email ID to log in and attend calls. Please use this link: https://rtcamp.zoom.us/ and sign in with rtcamp.com google email.
General Guidelines
- Keep conversations positive, friendly, real, transparent and productive while adding value.
- If you make a mistake, admit it. Be upfront and be quick with your corrections. If you’re posting to a blog, you may choose to modify an earlier post, just make it clear that you have done so.
- There can be a fine line between healthy debate and incendiary reaction. Try to frame what you write to invite differing points of view without inflaming others. You don’t need to respond to every criticism or barb. Be careful and considerate.
- Answer questions, and thank people, even if it’s just a few words. Make it a two-way conversation.
- Appreciate suggestions and feedback.
- Don’t make promises that you can’t keep, which are beyond your scope of knowledge, whether it’s oral or written communication
- Guide users who ask for help or give a suggestion and share links.
- Say Thanks: Thank people that did a great job in our “#appreciations” Slack channel. If someone is a team member, just @ mention them. If multiple people are working on something, try mentioning each person by “@name”. “Thanks, everyone” does not say much. Don’t thank the CEO or other executives for something that the company paid for, thank rtCamp instead.
- If any mail is received in error, immediately notify the sender, as some of these might be important with business consequences at times.
Keep in mind
We need to be accountable for having a respectful and open conversation. Some ground rules that may help you:
- Do not make jokes or unfriendly remarks about race, ethnic origin, skin colour, gender or sexual orientation.
- Use inclusive language. For example, prefer “Hi everybody” or “Hi people” or “Hi folks“.
- Refrain from posting any content that has extremist views(eg: political, or religious) and may hurt the sentiments of others.
- Share problems you run into, ask for help, be forthcoming with information and speak up.
- Don’t display surprise when people say they don’t know something, as it is important that everyone feel comfortable saying “I don’t know” and “I don’t understand.” (As inspired by Recurse.)
- If you make a mistake, don’t worry, correct it and proactively let the affected party, your team, and the VP/PM know what happened, how you corrected it and how, if needed, you changed the process to prevent future mistakes.
- You can always refuse to deal with people who treat you badly, and get out of situations that make you feel uncomfortable.
- Everyone can remind any rtCamper of these guidelines. If there is a disagreement about the interpretations, the discussion can be escalated to more people within the company without repercussions.
- When facing negative comments, respond patiently and treat every user as an individual, people with the strongest opinions can turn into the strongest supporters.
Talk to us
If you are unhappy with anything (your duties, your colleagues, your boss, your salary, your location, your computer) please let HR, your reporting manager, the CEO or someone within the organisation know as soon as you realize it. We want to solve problems while they are small.