This blog isn’t HVAC-specific, but it does have a connection to how you and your employees communicate. If there was ever one set of initials that changed the face of communications as we know it, it is LOL (laugh out loud). This miserable combination of letters, hatched out of the text messaging/e-mail era, exemplifies how little people personally communicate with each other anymore, that is, face-to-face intelligent conversation.

LOL is a quick, easy way to express an emotion or response, although I bet that 99.9 percent of its users are not really laughing out loud.

I am very proud to say that I have never used this acronym in conversation, other than to mock or criticize it.

I’d like to propose a formal burial of LOL — an execution if you will. I propose that we have a national day of recognition to officially bury it forever. I will gladly take the leadership reins on such an event.

Being a journalism student, professional writer, and one who gets his best stories via face-to-face contact, I am in perfect position to be the anti-LOL spokesperson.

For one day we can encourage every employee (and yourself) to schedule a personal visit to one customer instead of a text message or e-mail.

Remember the old TV commercial where the boss gave out airline tickets to everyone in the meeting in order to reconnect them with customers? This special day can do just that.

And wouldn’t it be cool if the idea originated with HVACR contractors? Very cool.

Send me your thoughts — or call me.