instant messenger

[Brandon Martus]

Originally Posted by Kristina

The major downside of AIM in the workplace though is people who chat instead of working. My dad manages a dozen or so engineers and he hates people who use AIM because they never use it for work. I usually try to keep my away message up while I'm in the office and my messages hidden; then I'll only retrieve the messages from my coworkers.

Another major downside being that it is very insecure, and talking about delicate/private matters over it can be a risk to the company you are working for. I've heard of some companies banning all IM's, except for their internal company-only server, that they can monitor and secure as much as possible.