Tip: Does your workplace block Google Chat? Use Google+ to talk to people in your circles

[Ed. Note: For the record, I discovered this by accident, and don’t particularly intend to use it unless absolutely necessary.]

While circumventing your workplace’s chat policy is never necessarily a wise thing, if your office place blocks Google Chat, you can (partially) circumvent this to allow Google Chat with folks in your Google+ circles.

To do so:

• Sign into Google+.
• On the home tab, you should see a notification about being able to chat with your circles.
• Click OK, and your contacts will appear on the home screen with standard gchat-like indicators.

Some things of note so far:

• Your friends’ job titles take the place of chat statuses within Google+ chat