Microsoft Teams chats

Agree @wiredandtired. I often get Teams messages that are just a general check in.

I use Teams all day every day but I still have the basic social awareness to know that some people feel rude jumping straight in with a question.

But I don't expect social awareness from people who think it's reasonable to ignore a colleague saying hello.

Personally I combine a hello with the question in my initial message, but I don't expect everybody to be the same.

To me, sending a teams message is more akin to walking over to someone's desk and having a chat with them, as we used to do it in the old days - it's not the communication method you use when you have a detailed request for action/information that is to be looked at and responded to on the person's usual timescale but not immediately, I'd send an email with all the details in that case. I send teams messages either because I need to talk to the person and/or because we have a casual/informal kind of relationship where chat is usual/encouraged. In either instance I may not want/need to talk to them right this second if they're busy with something else or just don't fancy talking to me right now (fair!), in which case you need the digital equivalent of going and hovering in their eyeline so they can either smile and welcome you for a chat or wave you away if they're deep into something else or talking to someone else - I think that's what the 'hello' messagers are trying to do. I get that it can be annoying if people do it excessively but you can just ignore? Personally unless it's my very close colleagues i do add a bit more such as 'hello, hope you're well, can we have a chat about X when you're free' but it can end up being quite a long winded message then with excessive fluff which is equally irritating. I have one very abrupt colleague whose messages just say things like 'discussion re X now?' which feels a bit terse, as though he's annoyed about X!

I do admit that between ourselves in the team we're a bit more shorthand and just send wave emojis or GIFs if we're at a loose end and want a chat which do quite often go ignored if our chat schedules misalign!

Or maybe sometimes they were actually just saying hi, how are you?

Haha yes ! “Hi, hope you’re well?”
then “…” indicating they’re typing again. Just say what you want and quit the niceties

Put DND on if you aren't free? Otherwise behave like you would face to face

Because it's a distraction and a pain in the arse. If they asked their question first time out, you're only interrupted once and know what they actually want.

I suspect you're not someone who uses Teams?

why would you ignore someone saying hi, how are you? No wonder they didn’t follow up! Just say hi, how can I help?

yes someone in my team always starts with “hey, how are you ☺️?” So I ignore until they actually get to the point. 9/10 they don’t follow it up so it can’t have been very important!

Especially if you reply instantly, and then they wait several hours to reply again. Why not wait until you had time to type whatever you wanted to type before starting this conversation!

I ignore too. I once had an unanswered message about 6 weeks old and they still hadn’t asked me for anything, it can’t have been too important.

It’s not generally the culture where I work but if I got that they would be left on read.

Yes! I ignore them until they tell me what they want which I will then prioritise in my own time. I feel like they are making sure they have your attention so you can attend to their request immediately instead of when it suits you.