There are times when it isn't best to talk or email to your co-workers. For example certain topics are always touchy, religion is okay if and only if there is a general consensus that you and your coworker are on the same page, politics is fun but can create division in the work place that doesn't need to be there and anything of a sexual nature is best kept out of the office completely, for any reason it is simply unprofessional to engage in such conversation on the job, despite what anyone has to say about how the workplace has changed with respect to office romances.

Talk about general topics that can be of interest to anyone that anyone can partake of, because you never know when a coworker is going to walk by that wants to partake of a conversation. For example two people talking about race related issues, even in an all minority environment, can find issues in the office place unknowingly as race tends to create division in the office place even amongst people of the same race. One person may not be the atypical person of your race and the other may hate everyone of any race and creed that is different from them, but you would never know that unless you had those conversations, and you may not want to have them, because they can affect your work performance.

If you are going to email someone make it known before hand and use the general conversation as an introduction into emailing someone on their own personal email account. Never use the office email for chit-chat; technically it is always against the rules because it is for something that isn't work related. You have to be creative with how you use general conversation to create non-work related conversation in the work place; for example you can have that other person text you and relegate your personal conversation with them to your own breaks when you can turn your phone back on or check your messages. If you are interested or want to get to know the person better you can utilize personal email, but not the texts, because you never know if that text will get around as that other person is checking their messages in the break room.

If you are going to email, make sure you aren't sending it to everyone and just to the intended recipient; however trivial it may seem. Though it may be work related, you don't want any holes in your competency because you replied everyone something that everyone should already know how to do on the job. This is especially true when your supervisors, team leaders, managers or upper level technical support is sending a message to the entire group.

To keep it short and simple if you are going to e-mail, use it for work related stuff only, regardless of how trivial and benign your conversation appears to be. If you are going to talk, make sure it is something everyone can partake of, unless you are outside apart from the rest of your co-workers. Mix it up a bit as well; if you talk to the same people all of the time you'll have problems, particularly if these are people who are disaffected and disenfranchised from the company, if you talk to everyone all of the time you will come off as disingenuous ...

Learn more about this author, Christopher Kendalls.
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