When communicating via text chat, the tone isn’t always polite or refined. In urgent situations, for instance, one might receive a terse and straightforward message. Even outside of such circumstances, people sometimes send messages that feel blunt or lacking in warmth.

There are many ways to enhance psychological safety—using emojis, symbols, or other creative expressions—but those aren’t always feasible. Especially within teams, using overly polite language or unnecessarily elaborate phrasing can actually hinder communication efficiency.

One of the fundamental challenges of text-based communication is that it lacks the emotional cues that help us understand each other. In video calls or face-to-face conversations, we can read someone’s expression, hear the tone of their voice, or notice their gestures—these help us sense, for example, “Now might not be a good time to speak.” With text alone, that kind of awareness is harder to come by. A curt message might be the only signal we get.

But that doesn’t mean a plain message necessarily carries a negative intention. After all, we can’t truly know what someone else is feeling, and trying to read too much into it—only to become discouraged—does us no good.

So what should we keep in mind? Quite simply, we should get used to plain messages. Accept them as they are. By doing so, we can reduce the stress that often accompanies text-based communication.

It’s like in the military: even when being yelled at by a superior officer, you eventually stop being bothered by it—it simply becomes a mode of conveying information.