By Elysa Chen

WHEN it comes to courting, Singaporeans find instant messaging (IM) finger-clicking good.

Indeed, before today is over, some 51 million instant messages will be sent out here.

And many of them will be flirty.

Almost two out of three (60 per cent) of Singaporeans admitted in a recent survey to flirting online with someone other than their partner.

Almost one in four (24 per cent) of those surveyed said they would shoot their most intimate moments with a web cam and share it via IM.

The chatting and flirting goes on even at work.

More than a quarter (26.6 per cent) said they have typed furiously on their IM just to look busy at work.

The survey of more than 700 Singaporeans was conducted by Windows Live.

Nine in 10 Singaporeans surveyed said they would IM someone to ask them out on a date.

Almost 6 per cent said they would even propose online.

Just ask Mr M Sng, 23, a finance executive, who admits to flirting on MSN Messenger, an instant messaging program, while he is at work.

He has even asked someone online for a date while at work, he said.

"It's a good way to increase bonding in the office, and turn the hostile and quiet environment into a more fun and lively one," he said.

But some human resource professionals don't think Cupid should be lurking behind the office work stations.

The group general manager of HR Singapore, Mr Anthony Peck, said: "Even if using such programs encourages closeness in the office, more often than not, people use them for social conversations, rather than for work."

Recalling an instance where an e-mail of bikini-clad women made its rounds in the office, Mr Peck added that IM programs are open to similar abuse should they be used to send vulgar or obscene messages.

He feels some guidelines on the use of IM programs at work are necessary - like no flirting, obscene words, or obscene pictures.

However, Mr Paul Heng, founder and managing director of NeXT Career Consulting Group, Asia, felt that such moves were not necessary.

He said: "Instant messaging is just another medium of communication, and what applies with verbal communication and e-mails should also apply."

Indeed, IM programs would come in useful if someone had been sexually harassed at the workplace.

Mr Heng said: "If messages sent on chat programs can be traced back, they will come in useful if someone files a sexual harassment suit or if they make a complaint."

Unprofessional

Miss Dena Ng, 30, an assistant engineer, felt that flirting online was unprofessional.

She said: "I think using instant messenger for personal chats to arrange after-work dinner venues or catching up with friends is all right, but people who flirt online would have crossed the line."

Mr Sng, who has been on IM since he started working for his current company more than a year ago, has a strategy to avoid being caught by his bosses.

He is always ready to use the Alt + Tab keys to "screen away" (to switch to another window) as it is an unwritten rule that IM for social purposes is not allowed in the workplace.

Love, it seems, can be the mother of inventiveness.

elysac@sph.com.sg

This article was first published in The New Paper.