Teams messages: Hi

Yeah, and I find passive aggressive posts like yours irritating but can obviously only speak for myself on that.

However, I'm fairly confident that most people don't really care how the recipient is and are merely going though what they believe are the norm in terms of civilities. They would be appalled if Martha actually told them how they were.

But yes, I do agree that Nigel should say "Hi Martha", rather than just "Martha".

Thank you for speaking for most people.

Like the OP, I hate the disembodied greeting that precedes Teams messages with actual content.

But I'm all for a bit of civility.

I find messages where people disregard a greeting entirely and just write:

Martha.

I need the the blue pill file and the red pill file.

Please send them to me as soon as you can.

Nigel Boss Man
Full email signature

Really abrupt and rude, for example.

I like a nice 'Happy Friday' or 'hope you're enjoying the sunshine' rather agreeable.

But I can't speak for anyone else. I hope you have a great weekend.

Most people really don't care enough about whether you're well or not to warrant the query. Sure, they probably care in a vague, wouldn't wish not feeling well on someone, type of way but really aren't that bothered about it.

But they probably do hope the person is well. It just isn't an invitation to explain if/why you're not. On a Monday, I say I hope you've had a good weekend. I know not everyone will have done. If I've had a lousy weekend and someone says they hope it was good, I don't get offended. I still appreciate their kind sentiment.

That would be fine without the "hope you're well" bit. "Hi. Can you send me x please?" is polite AND succinct AND more efficient.

I just ignore the "hope you're well" bit. I know the sender doesn't really care, beyond looking "polite".

It's 'fine', but a bit brusque if you don't know them well or haven't spoken to them often.

What's wrong with the middle-ground of 'hello hope you're well, can you send me X please'? Polite AND succinct

No, it’s fine to write “Hi, xx, could you do xx?” Without the “hope you are well” bit.

It's a good job I open with 'okay' rather than 'well' then.

I actually do genuinely hope people are okay.

It's not disingenuous.

And 'okay' isn't a particularly high bar.

Equally, people who say: "I hope you are well" probably do hope the recipient is in fine fettle.

It's all in the sentiment.

I'm sorry you think it's stupid.

Maybe people should just dispense with civilities altogether.

This!

If it's urgent and important, I can make myself free. But anything truly urgent that's also completely unforeseen by me is extremely rare (and when it is, people usually find they're able to type the sentence that tells me what the issue is).

If it's not urgent, I'm not free, but I can schedule whatever needs to happen in my own time.

Oh my god this drives me up the wall. "Hi" is not a full message so if I receive it I will ignore it until I receive the rest of the message. Only ever received it a couple of times and didn't realise it was a widespread scourge.

It's not quite the same thing as people who say "Hi" in the first message but then immediately follow up (in other words they send a full message, just broken down into 5 individual messages). That baffles me but I can work with it.

You have to teach them...

By making a request to them as you expressed

I have a colleague who will always just send "Hi". If I ignore there will be literally no follow up for 24hrs, until the next "Hi". When I finally have time to indulge the useless small talk, the task could be anything from asking who should do XYZ to something that will end the business if not done urgently.

Drives me mad.

No, not as an opener. It’s meaningless and comes over so stupidly. Nobody needs to ask or make statements about health.

I do hope people are okay as an opener. Just for politeness.

The alternative is asking if they're well/okay.

And then they might actually answer.

That rarely ends well.

Oh I hate it with a passion!!! I ignore the message until they follow it up with their request/query. I wish they'd just get to the point

Oh god, I think I might have had to stab him with a toasting fork!

I've sent this link to people in the past 😆

I have colleagues who do this and I hate it. Although I have never been pulled on anything and I maintain great quality, the "hi" message always feels like it is going to follow bad news 😅

Anyone on my team here, please start with a full sentence!

I would hate that.
And as I am not British, I would, after a while of them doing that, tell them to say it all in one message.

sometimes I can make myself free to respond to something quick/ urgent, but not something lower priority. If you start with “Hi, are you free to discuss x” I can take into account what’s needed. If I have to reply “hi”, then wait to find out what it is, it means my mind gets taken away from what I’m in the middle of, so it’s much more distracting

I was on a meeting yesterday where one person had a message pinned on their Teams that they're working to a "no hello" policy - as in, just tell me what you want.

Seemed a bit like overkill, just do it. I just say Hi <name> hope you're ok - have you got/can you tell me etc.

I do not reply to a message of Hi. When they cut to the chase I then respond.

Oh, I can go one better. One of my exes would just type 'k'. Used to drive me up the wall. He was a moody miserable bastard who despite being a grown arse man acted like a twatty teenager most of the time. Wasted five months on him, got dumped a few times (why I took him back after the first time I do not know! 🤦🏻‍♀️) and then he dumped me permanently which made me very happy. 😁 His mum didn't like me because I was still married to my ex husband (although separated for years) and still had my married surname, which would have been the case whether we'd been divorced or not.