Instant messaging mayhem

Isn’t it amazing that people feel as if they must apologise for doing work during work time? You could take the gradual approach and just generally let it be known that you can’t deal with IMs all the time. If your system is such that you can block IMs for periods of time, do so. I really dislike IMs for the same reason I dislike call waiting: last come, first served. They are inherently rude systems. If you can’t block them, then I’d give everybody one last chance before ignoring them. I’d just reply, ‘Swamped. Later’. If none of these options are effective, you really have no choice but to ask management to issue a policy on IMs to stem its abuse. Good luck.