Where does this conversation go?

Every work conversation has one place where it is fastest. In the right place, the people who need to know are already there, nobody has to ask twice, and the answer is still there next month. This page shows that place for everyday situations, with the buttons to press.

The rules behind it, and the policy you sign, are explained in Where work conversations belong. This page is the everyday how-to.

The one-line rule

If it has a number, talk on the record. If it should have a number, raise it. Otherwise: one person → direct message; your whole team → your team's group; urgent → call.

Cheat sheet

Read each line as: I need to… → go to… → how.

Something with a number

Ask about an order, a shipment, a work order or a repair → its chat → open it and click the speech bubbles next to its number.
Get someone to act on a record → its chat → Share it to them first, then @mention them.
Show a record to someone → Share → the Share icon next to its number. On the phone: type the number.
A workshop quote for a company vehicle → its service visit → Quote & files › Attach quote, then agree it in the visit's chat. Not in the fleet team? Send the quote to the fleet manager.
Hand over a drawing or a file → the product or the project → attach it there, then point to it in the chat.

Asking for something

Access to a page → Request Access → the avatar menu in the top bar.
Leave, a half day, a sick note → Apply for Leave → Dashboard › My stuff › Me & HR › My Leave.
Overtime before you work it → a custom schedule request → My Schedule › Submit Custom Schedule Request.
Stock → a move order → Warehouse › Move Orders, or Request consumables / Request Equipment.
Something new bought → the Procurement group → what, how many, why, by when.
A problem with myWork → Report a Bug → the avatar menu.
"How do I…?" → Help → the ? icon at the top of the page.

Work for someone

Work that has its own record (an assembly order, a work order step, a move order…) → that record, never a task → ask in its chat.
Work with a deadline that has no record of its own → a task → Tasks & Projects › My Tasks › New Task.
Weeks of work with several people → a project → Tasks & Projects › Projects › New project.
A quick question → a direct message → the question in the first line.

Team and company

News for your whole team → your team's group.
A notice for your department → an announcement → department managers publish it themselves. For the whole company → through HR.

Urgent

Someone is hurt or in danger → call or shout, any way that is fastest → then tell your supervisor.
Urgent and it stops work → call their extension → no answer: their supervisor. Then write it on the record.

People outside the company

A customer or a supplier → email, or a call from your extension → the same day, put what they agreed on the record.

The decision, as a picture

Start at the top. The first "yes" is where your conversation goes.

Where does this conversation go? Start at the top; the first yes wins. First: someone hurt or in danger? Call or shout, any way, then tell your supervisor. 1: Is it urgent, does it stop work right now? Call them; no answer, call their supervisor; then write it on the record. 2: Is it about something with a number, such as an order, a shipment, a work order, a task or a vehicle? Its chat: the speech bubbles by its number; Share first, then @mention. 3: Should it have a number, such as leave, access, stock, a bug or work with a due date? Raise it: its own record first; a task only when no record fits; then talk in its chat. 4: Is it for your whole team? Your team's group, never a new group for one subject. Otherwise it is for one person: a direct message, with the question in the first line. Someone outside the company? Email, or call from your extension, and the same day put what they agreed on the record; WhatsApp only if your position is in Annex A. Never between colleagues: WhatsApp, Signal or SMS, from Monday 2 November. Never in any chat: a password, PIN or payment code.

It is about a record

A record is anything in myWork with its own number: an order, a shipment, a work order, a repair, a task, a purchase order, a vehicle. Its chat is the speech-bubbles icon next to its number, at the top of its page. The star, the Share icon and a sticky-note icon sit beside it. The sticky note is private to you, so it is not the one to click.

"Where is my order?"

Old habit: asking in the sales group, or a direct message to stores.
New way: open the sales order or the shipment and click the speech bubbles. Ask there. Type @ and pick the person from the list.
Why it is faster: the stock and the status are already on the page, and stores and dispatch read the same chat.
Example: a customer asks a sales consultant about a battery order. The consultant asks in the order's chat and @mentions the dispatch clerk. The clerk answers there, and the next person to open the order sees the answer too.

Asking someone to act on a record

Old habit: a direct message to that person.
New way: @mention them in the record's chat. If they are not in that chat yet, Share the record to them first (on the web), then @mention them. The work stays in the record. If it needs a person, use the record's own assignment: a work order step's assignee, an assembly order, a move order's claim, the repair bench. Never a task on top of it (see Work that has its own record is never a task).
Why it is faster: the ask sits next to the facts, and whoever covers for that person sees it too.
Example: a buyer needs stores to recount a delivery. They Share the receipt to the stores clerk, then @mention the clerk in its chat: "Please recount the cable lugs today. The supplier says two boxes went in."

Letting people know ("paid", "dispatched", "two parts short")

Old habit: a direct message to whoever asked.
New way: post it in the record's chat.
Why it is faster: the next person sees it without asking you.
Example: "Dispatched with the afternoon courier" goes on the shipment, not to the salesperson alone.

A quote or an approval for a company vehicle

Old habit: an email chain with five people and the quote attached.
New way: the job's record is its service visit. Fleet opens it (Fleet › Service Visits › New visit › Create draft), and its chat starts at once. The quote goes on the visit: Quote & files › Attach quote (a later one with Attach revised quote). @mention whoever approves it in the visit's chat, and the decision is written there: "Approved, book it for Monday."
Not in the fleet team? You cannot open a visit or attach its quote. Send the quote to the fleet manager alone (forward the email, or a direct message with the PDF), with the car, the workshop and by when. Once the visit is open, they can Share it to you.
Why it is faster: the quote, the approval and the booking sit on one record, and nobody searches an inbox. The price stays with the people who need it: only fleet managers and whoever opened the visit can see its files.
Example: a workshop emails a service quote for a pool car to an office administrator, who sends it to the fleet manager. The fleet manager opens the visit, attaches the quote and @mentions the operations manager, who answers in the visit's chat: "Approved, book it for Monday."
See Booking a vehicle in for service.

Borrowing a pool car

Old habit: "Can I take the car?" by direct message to a manager, and "yes" in the message.
New way: ask in the vehicle's chat, with when and why. The fleet admin answers there. Keeping a car after hours needs a take-home approval from fleet: see Taking a vehicle home. If you cannot open the vehicle, send the fleet admin one direct message with the car, the time and the reason.
Why it is faster: everyone can see who has the car, and nobody approves the same car twice.
Example: a technician writes in the car's chat: "Need it tomorrow 8:00 to 13:00 for a site visit." The fleet admin replies "OK" under it.

A problem with a purchase

Old habit: a direct message to the buyer, or an internal email chain.
New way: the purchase order's chat. It opens once the order is placed. Procurement reaches the supplier with Send to supplier. When the supplier answers through the link in that email (Send message or Upload document), the answer lands in the same chat. An email reply does not, so it has to be attached (see People outside the company).
Why it is faster: stores, the buyer and accounts read one story, not three.
Example: stores receive two extra brackets. The stores clerk asks in the order's chat. The buyer answers there: "Keep them, the supplier will credit us."

A work order step or a repair

New way: the work order's or the repair job's chat.
Example: a technician finds a damaged board and asks in the repair job's chat whether to replace it.

Showing a record to someone

Old habit: a screenshot, or a pasted link.
New way: the Share icon next to the number (on the web). It sends them a link in a direct message. For tasks and purchase orders it can also give them access. In the phone app, type the number (WO-, PO-, SS-, SO-) and it becomes a link.
Why it is faster: a link opens the record as it is now. A screenshot is out of date as soon as you take it, and nobody can click it.

"The link says I have no access"

New way: say so in the same chat. The sender can Share it again with access (tasks and purchase orders), or ask the record's owner to add you. Also check that you opened myWork at its usual company address, not an old bookmark.

A question about a procedure or a policy

Old habit: a direct message to whoever wrote it, with no reference.
New way: look it up first (the Help tab). Still unsure? Send the document's owner a direct message with the document code in the first line, for example "SOP-… step 4: does this include contractors?". If you are one of its reviewers, comment on the document itself.

Several people agreeing something on one record

New way: its chat. @mention each person. Write the decision there, with who decided.
Example: "Agreed: we assemble on Thursday. Decided by the production manager."

Handing over a drawing or a file

Old habit: typing a network folder path in a chat.
New way: attach it to the product's manufacturing files or to the project's Documents tab, then point to it in the chat.
Why it is faster: a path breaks, and people end up building from an old drawing. The attached file is the current one.

You need something (requests)

If what you need has its own form, raise it. A request reaches the right approver, waits in their list and shows you its status. A message to your manager does none of that.

Access to a page or a role: the avatar menu in the top bar › Request Access › "A page I need" or "A specific role" › write why › Submit request.
Leave or a half day: Dashboard › My stuff › Me & HR › My Leave › Apply for Leave › Submit Request. See My Leave: apply, edit, cancel and return early.
A sick note: on the same form, Upload Certificate Now (optional), or later My Leave History › Upload sick note.
Overtime, before you work it: Dashboard › My Schedule › Submit Custom Schedule Request.
Stock brought to you: Warehouse › Move Orders › New Delivery. No such button? Use Request consumables or Request Equipment on the Dashboard. See Move Orders: request, collect and drop off stock.
A problem with myWork: avatar menu › Report a Bug › Submit report. A screenshot and the details are captured for you.
A visitor: Gate & Security › Guest Bookings › New booking, if you have that button.
Something wrong with a vehicle (drivers): Fleet › Vehicles › the vehicle › Report a problem.
On the phone: these forms are not in the myChat24 app. Open myWork in your phone's browser.

Asking for access, a day off or stock

Old habit: "Hi boss, can you give me access to the stock page?" by direct message.
New way: raise the request. Your manager approves it where it lands.
Why it is faster: it waits in the approver's list instead of in a chat they may not reopen. Access requests raised this way have been answered within minutes.
Example: a new stores assistant cannot open the stock count page. They press Request Access, choose "A page I need", write "for the Friday count" and submit.

No button for it?

Some records only certain roles can create: a service visit (fleet), a purchase order (procurement), a courier booking (dispatch).

New way: ask the role whose job it is in one message, with what, why and by when in the first line. Let them raise it. Never run the job in direct messages or email.
Example: a sales administrator needs a parcel at a branch by Friday. They send dispatch one message with the order number, the address and the date. Dispatch books the courier, and the rest happens on the booking.

Something must be bought

New way: a stock item → Request consumables or Request Equipment. Something new → one message in the Procurement group: what, how many, why, by when. Procurement raises the purchase order, and its chat carries the rest.
Never order from a supplier by email yourself.

"How do I do this in myWork?"

Old habit: a direct message to the person who knows.
New way: the ? "Help for this page" icon at the top of the page, or the Help tab in the chat panel. Still stuck? Then a direct message.
Why it is faster: the article answers at once, even when that person is busy or away.

An idea for myWork

New way: avatar menu › Report a Bug. Start the text with "Idea:".

A quick errand (an airport run, a car wash, fetching cables)

New way: its own record first: goods moving → a move order; a delivery → courier or dispatch; a vehicle → the vehicle's chat. Otherwise, a direct message plus a call is fine. Make it a task only if it has a deadline or a cost and no record fits.

Work for someone

Work that has its own record is never a task

Old habit: a task on top of the record, such as "Assemble the cables for order …, due Thursday".
New way: the record is the job. An assembly order, a work order step, a repair on the bench, a move order, picking and packing a shipment, receiving goods, a courier delivery, a purchase order, a service visit: each is assigned, started, finished and discussed in its own record. To get it done sooner, ask in the record's chat, or, if you run that work, change its priority or who it is assigned to on the record itself.
Why it is faster: one place shows the true state. There is no second task to close when the work is done. Time and KPI are counted once, not twice. And the people who watch the record, such as stores and planning, see the ask.
Example: a cable assembler works from assembly orders. Their lead needs one finished by Thursday, because the customer collects on Friday. The lead makes no task. They @mention the assembler in the assembly order's chat: "Can this be finished by Thursday? The customer collects on Friday."
A task is only for work with no record of its own: a report, a decision, an improvement, a one-off job outside someone's routine.

"Can you do this by Friday?"

Old habit: a direct message, and the work then lives in that message.
New way: does the work have its own record? Then it goes there (see above). If not, a task with an owner and a due date: Tasks & Projects › My Tasks › New Task › Assign to › Create draft › set Due › Publish. See Creating and assigning tasks.
Department managers can give tasks within their department. If you cannot (the form says "This task will be assigned to you"), ask the person's manager to raise it. If that is not possible, send one direct message with what, why and by when.
Why it is faster: the task reminds them, shows you how far it is, and its chat reaches them and their manager.
Example: a sales manager needs a summary of last month's returns for Thursday's meeting. No record covers that, so they give a sales administrator a task, "Returns summary for the monthly meeting", due Thursday.

"How far are you with that?"

Old habit: a direct message asking how far a job is.
New way: ask in the chat of the record the work is on: the task, the work order, the move order. Click the speech bubbles next to its number, or use Discuss on a task in the phone app.
Why it is faster: that chat already reaches the person doing the work and the people who follow it, next to the record's own updates.

Weeks of work with several people

New way: a project with milestones, and tasks for the pieces that have no record of their own. Tasks & Projects › Projects › New project, then Add milestone. You need project access; otherwise ask a project owner. See Milestones or tasks? Planning a project.

A quick question for one person

New way: a direct message with the question in the first line. On the web: chat panel › Chats › New Direct Chat, or the small speech bubble next to a person's name on a record. In the apps: New chat.

Three or more people, one subject, no record

Old habit: a new WhatsApp group for each subject.
New way: if someone must act or decide, it is a task for that person. The talk happens in its chat, and the others are brought in with Share. A matter for the whole team goes in the team's group. Never make a new group for one subject.
Why it is faster: a group per subject is soon forgotten and nobody owns the outcome. A task has an owner and an end.
Example: three people must agree the layout of a new storage rack. The stores manager gets a task, "Decide the rack layout by Friday". The others are Shared in and give their views in the task's chat.

Your team and the company

News for your whole team

New way: your team's group.
Example: "Stocktake starts at 7:00 on Friday" goes in the stores team's group.

A notice for a department or the whole company

New way: an announcement: People › Human Resources › Company Events › New event / announcement. Department managers publish to the departments they manage. A notice for the whole company goes through HR.
Announcements are one-way. Questions go to the sender by direct message, or to your team's group. You read them under People › My Events. See Company Events & Announcements: a manager's guide.

A rule people must read and sign

New way: a controlled policy in EDMS, with its readers and their acknowledgement. Not an announcement: announcements are for things that happen on a date.

Your first days

Your manager (or the group's owner) adds you to your team's group on day one, on the web: Group Members › Add People. HR sets up your profile and your extension. Records reach you as you are named on them.

An old WhatsApp or Signal group

New way: a team group is recreated in myChat by its manager or lead. A group about one customer or one job is not recreated: it ends, and its talk moves to that job's record (or, when no record fits, a task or a project). How the switch-over works is in Where work conversations belong.

Urgent

Someone is hurt or in danger

New way: the fastest way first, any means: shout, call, a mobile, WhatsApp. Then tell your supervisor. Your supervisor reports it to HR the same day.

Urgent, and it stops work

Old habit: three missed calls, then a typed "?".
New way: call their extension: Voice call in your direct message with them, or the Calls tab. No answer: call their supervisor. Afterwards, write the outcome on the record.
Why it is faster: one call settles it, and the written line means nobody has to ask later what was agreed.
Example: a line stops because a part is missing. The production lead calls the stores supervisor, then writes in the work order's chat: "Stores bring the part by 10:30."
How to dial is in Calling from myWork.

A vehicle accident or breakdown

New way: drivers use Report a problem on the vehicle (Fleet › Vehicles). Everyone else calls the fleet admin. Then a line in the vehicle's chat.

Is the person at work?

New way: look at the dot in your direct message with them: green, clocked in; amber, was in earlier today; grey, not in today. Not urgent: write it in the right place, and it waits for them. Urgent: call. See Is a colleague at work?
For your own evenings: Quiet when I'm not clocked in, in the app's Settings › Get my attention (Windows app and Android phone app). It is off until you switch it on. Calls still ring.

No answer, or someone who does not read chat

New way: if they are clocked in and your message is still unread, call. Then their manager.
Never ask a third person to "tell them to read their messages", and never send the same message in three places.

On the production floor, or when myChat is down

Check your messages on your break. Anything urgent reaches you through your supervisor or lead, in person. What to do when myChat or the phones are down is in Where work conversations belong.

HR and personal

Leave, a half day, a sick note

Old habit: "Good morning boss, I need a half day tomorrow."
New way: Apply for Leave (Dashboard › My stuff › Me & HR › My Leave). For a sick note, Upload Certificate Now (optional) on the same form.
Why it is faster: it lands in your approver's list, your balance updates, and payroll sees it. No "did you get my message?".
Example: a stores assistant needs tomorrow afternoon off. They choose "Afternoon Half Day (4h)", submit, and the approval comes back as a notice.

Hours and overtime

New way: check My Hours and My Overtime. Overtime ahead of time is a Submit Custom Schedule Request on My Schedule. A question about your hours: one direct message to your manager.

Pay, a loan or an advance

New way: your payslips are on the My Payslip card on the Dashboard. For a loan, an advance or a pay question, write to HR once, with everything in the first message.
Never put a payment code or a PIN in any chat.

Something personal or sensitive

New way: in person, or a direct message to HR or your manager.
Good to know: work chats, direct messages included, are company records. Authorised people may read them for an investigation. Keep private matters out of work chats.

Discipline

New way: only through HR's process. Ask HR, not a colleague.

People outside the company

Everyone may email customers and suppliers. Whoever hears it, what an outside party agrees, promises, prices or complains about goes on the record the same working day.

A customer or a supplier emails you

New way: answer by email. The same day, put the substance on the record: save the email as a PDF and Attach file in the record's chat, or write a short summary there.
Example: a supplier emails a buyer a new delivery date. The buyer attaches the email in the purchase order's chat, writes "New date: next Tuesday" and @mentions the stores clerk.

Colleagues must act on an outside email

Old habit: forwarding the email to five people.
New way: attach it to the record, Share the record to them and @mention them. Only if no record fits, make it a task.
Why it is faster: the people who act see the email next to the order, and nobody works from an old forward.

A phone call with a customer

New way: call from your extension. Write the outcome on the record.

WhatsApp with customers

Only positions listed in Annex A of the policy may use WhatsApp or a mobile with outside parties, and never with colleagues. Everyone else uses email or their extension. The details are in Where work conversations belong.

Good habits

Ask in the first message. Instead of "Hi" and waiting, write "Hi, can you send me the test report for the battery order by 14:00?". They can answer in one go, even while you are away.
Share first, then @mention, and pick the name from the list. An @mention only reaches people who are already in that chat. A name typed without picking it reaches nobody.
Answer in the same chat. Use Reply to quote the message you answer. Do not move the conversation into a direct message.
Write the decision on the record, with who decided. "Approved by the fleet manager: book it for Monday." A decision made on a call or in a direct message is copied there too.
Voice messages are for talk. Decisions are in text. (Only the Windows app records a voice message: the mic, Record a voice message.) In the web chat, the text icon beside a voice message's player turns it into text, kept for everyone in the chat.
Share a link, not a screenshot. A screenshot is right only for something that has no link, such as an error on your screen.
Want it quieter? Turn it down, do not walk away. On the web, click the star until it shows "Badge only" or "Muted". In the apps: ⋮ › Notifications › "Mute". Not "Not watching" or Unwatch: once you stop watching a chat, being @mentioned there does not bring you back. On a record's chat, "System updates only" is no quieter, because the record's own updates are the system messages.
Email between colleagues is not a conversation. Talk in myChat. Use internal email only where a process asks for a formal letter.
No WhatsApp, Signal or SMS between colleagues from Monday 2 November. If a colleague writes to you there, answer in myChat.
Never a password, a PIN or a payment code in any chat, direct messages included. Passwords go through IT; pay goes through HR. Sent one by mistake? Delete it and change it.
Check which chat you are in before you press send. Sent it to the wrong place? Delete it at once and post it in the right one.

For managers and leads

Your team does what you do. If you approve in a direct message, they will keep asking in direct messages.

A request arrives by direct message

New way: reply "Please raise it, I'll approve it there", then approve it there quickly.
Why it works: the redirect only sticks if the record gets answered faster than the message did.
Example: a technician messages you to change next week's shift. You reply: "Please submit a custom schedule request, I'll approve it today." You do, within the hour.

You approve or decide something

New way: do it on the record, never in a direct message. That includes pool cars, schedules, access and quotes. Write who decided.

Work your team does in its own records

Old habit: a task on top of the record, to push or track it.
New way: never give your team a task for work they do in their own records. A production lead does not task an assembler to do an assembly order; a stores lead does not task a clerk to pick a move order. Push it on the record itself: ask in its chat, or change its priority or its assignee there.
Why it works: one record shows the true state, and time and KPI are counted once, not twice.
For work outside those records (a report, a decision, an improvement), give a task with an owner and a due date, and ask in the task's chat, not by direct message.

Your team still uses an old WhatsApp or Signal group

New way: recreate the team group in myChat (New Group Chat on the web), add everyone (Group Members › Add People), close the old group, and redirect kindly. Only managers and team leads can start a group, on the web and in the apps. Never make a group for one subject. Add each new joiner to the team's group on their first day.

A department notice

New way: publish it yourself as an announcement to the departments you manage: People › Human Resources › Company Events › New event / announcement. Whole-company notices go through HR.

Someone keeps asking you "how do I…?"

New way: point them to the ? icon on the page, or answer once in the team's group so everyone learns.

Phone users

What the myChat24 phone app can do:

read and reply, in direct messages, groups and the record chats you follow;

send photos and files (Attach › File);

call (Voice call, Video call, the Phone keypad);

work your own tasks (Start, Finish: send for review, Hand back…, Discuss);

forward a message (Forward to…).

What it cannot do:

raise a request: leave, access, a bug, stock;

give anyone a task, or Share a record;

open a record's chat you do not follow yet;

record a voice message, or open your sticky notes.

For those, open myWork in your phone's browser. It is the same myWork, with the same buttons. If there is no myChat24 app for your phone, use myWork in the browser for chat too.

Tips: type a record number (WO-, PO-, SS-, SO-) and it becomes a link. When you @mention, pick the name from the list: a typed name reaches nobody. On Android, Quiet when I'm not clocked in is in Settings. On the production floor, the floor phone rules still apply.

Where work conversations belong: myChat, record channels and business calls: the policy in plain words, Annex A and the switch-over.
Chat, Record Channels and Notifications: the chat panel, the star and Share.
Booking a vehicle in for service
Sticky notes: jot it, pin it, bin it: for reminders only you need.
Company Events & Announcements: a manager's guide
Is a colleague at work? The dot in a 1:1 chat
Creating and assigning tasks
Calling from myWork: web page, Windows app and phone app