ABSTRACT
The way people communicate makes a difference in the workplace. In contrast to core business talk, which is focused, on-task, and high-information talk (Holmes 2000), relational talk is “non-obligatory talk” (McCarthy 2000, 84) that builds rapport. In this chapter, we review the literature on relational talk at work to reveal the communication practices that function positively in workplace interaction. To do so, we draw on a model of positive communication proposed by Mirivel (2014) and argue that six communication practices—greeting, asking, complimenting, disclosing, encouraging, and listening—are especially critical in creating effective and productive workplace interaction.
