I need to rant about Teams culture

[Blueradiators]

As in, Microsoft Teams.

The constant pinging and "quick" questions are driving me potty. The interruptions!! I can't ever just get on with things because I am in a Teams meeting, or Frank wants to know if I have 2 minutes to call him and refuses to say why and then keeps me on the phone for 40 minutes, or Zainab wants to "quickly" run through the reporting slides cos she sees I have a free half hour in my diary.

Whatever happened to sending me an email? Or scheduling a meeting with an agenda so that I have time to think and prepare? Why does everyone feel entitled to an immediate response?

I am in my 30s and I genuinely don't know how this has become my life. It seems to have crept up and suddenly is everywhere. Is this just my company or are others suffering like this too? What can be done?

And if you're one of those on the offending side, WHY do you do it?!

See I hate the "can I call you?" messages. If I'm on green, call - it's still up to me if I answer.

Use Windows focus mode.
Switches everything off for a set period.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/experience/focus-stay-on-task-without-distractions-in-windows

People used to call people without pre warning...?
Either answer or don't... No one really cares.

Send them a message back that you're busy and you'll call them in 5mins, 4 hours or next week.

You know in the olden days sometimes the telephone would ring and you would have no idea who it was until you picked it up and spoke to them…

I don’t check teams messages very often, so they get a response when I see it. I also don’t answer Teams cold calls (unless it’s my boss). I have my status set to unknown so I don’t show as red/green/yellow. I respond to emails only or I attend the scheduled meeting on teams. If someone needs to talk to me, they can email me or set up a meeting at a mutually convenient time!

Yes this is it exactly. I remember those times 🙂. I even had queues at my desk at some points LOL! At least with Teams you can switch it off or show an appropriate availability message.

I don’t see how it’s any different to the phone ringing pre Teams, or people coming over to my desk to ask a question. If anything, it’s more manageable now and I can just reply asking them to put time in my diary when I’m free and deal with the query then.

I think you might have a boundaries problem, not a Teams culture problem.

This depends entirely on the nature of the company and the industry. If you work in a fast-paced industry like banking and you take 3 business days to reply to a teams then YABU. If it’s e.g. civil service then YANBU.

You just need to practice saying no.

”Can we hop on a quick call?”
”Sorry no, I am not free for a call.”
”Please can we have just a 2min call?”
”No, please put it in a message or email.”

Feels harsh at first, but gets easier.

I would only ever hop on a quick call for C-suite.

I struggled with this too - I am much better now I have implemented some things.

I fill gaps in my diary with tasks - so noone assumes that its ‘free’ and for some of those, I put DND on - I’ll allow certain people to reach me (you can toggle the settings) and do it every day, so its something people know to see.

I also pavlov train my colleagues 😂 I rarely answer an unexpected call first time around, so they learn that its not going to be answered immediately (obvs there may be certain scenarios where I might not but in general…) but if they have given me even a little bit of notice and followed my unspoken rules I do 😂

I also sometimes, if someone has bypassed my gates and asks something in a long winded call that should have been in an email, ask them to follow it up with an email so I can deal with it on my time, and not have to do it there and then.

I also switch all the settings off to minimise pop ups so I don’t feel a burning need to look at messages, shut my emails down etc.

Sometimes, I will also ‘go ghost’ and sign out of Teams and tell my boss I am doing it so I can knuckle down.

Agree, those fast-paced sectors are very different. Expectation is fast, pretty much immediate, response. If you're not responsive, you're out. Particulary with US HQs.

Love it and hate it. What I absolutely loathe though is 'hey'...5 min interlude of them typing about what they want where I cant do anything else as I'm anxiously waiting for them to tell me what annoying task they are asking about. Just send me the full essay rather than interrupting with 'hey'. Or the random unexpected calls as you are typing a sentence. Yes phone calls were always a thing but they weren't popping up right there on your screen and you could at least turn them off.

See this doesn’t bother me because the first two and a half decades of my working life was full of phone calls, that was completely normal. It changed to scheduling calls when desk phones went away about 2020. People used to just ring you up, if you were senior you had a secretary who answered your phone.

turn off the notifications, then just have a look at it when it suits you

I have notifications turned off

Set focus times in your diary so your teams shows you as busy

Say "I can't do that today but let's schedule a time next week"

Have times where you are available too of course but it's fine to take back control of your day

I agree, OP. I’ll be ‘in a meeting’ with other staff, in standing meetings that is clearly across the board on many of our calendars and I get interrupted by messages and a ‘When you are free can I call you?’ No explanation or reason given. I can’t plan how long they think it will take. The other day a five minute question blew out to over an hour.

Another staff member has form of messaging me desperately and asking if I’m free for a quick call the second I log back in after lunch. They clearly are waiting for the light to go green then bam - message for a call. It is never urgent and could be emailed or summarised in two lines on Teams.

My DH allows this to happen to him daily. I absolutely do not tolerate it.
If I'm busy, I set myself as busy and block out time in my calendar for the task I am doing.
If someone rings me without warning, I ignore the call.
If someone asks if I'm free for a "quick chat" I will usually message back and say I'm not at the moment, no, but to give me an idea of what's up and I'll find the answer and either call them back or message them.
Just refuse to go along with it. Exception might need to be made for senior colleagues sometimes, but even then, there is a limit.
Good luck OP!

This genuinely looks so useful. I might have a go tomorrow!

Ah perhaps I was too young/junior in my career pre-covid when we were in the office. No one ever came to my desk unless it was so check when I was going to lunch!

I think you might be on to something.

However, my whole team seems to be like this and I do worry about being the lone one doing things differently and standing out.

Teams works really well for me. I manage a team of 13, if I’m showing as ‘busy’ they leave me alone. We don’t use it for anything other than meetings and chats. We still use outlook for documents.

Exactly this, we used to get interrupted on other ways….at least in teams you can see who it is before you pick up!

What’s up with going on DND? I’ve had some lovely productive days when I’ve gone DND for an hour to get something done and then (genuinely) forgot to take it off! Only my team and LM can get me when I’m on DND.

It was strangely flattering to be so needed by colleagues! I recall having a great satisfaction by half-jokingly telling them to "join the queue!!!" or "take a ticket!!!" 😆 At least it was visible to all the other colleagues back then. Same with the paper based in trays which are now replaced with email. Everyone could actually see the demand and overloads very visibly.