Teams messages: Hi

[Ultravox]

AIBU to hate it when a colleague starts off a conversation like this?

Colleague: Hi

Me: Hi

Colleague: How are you?

Me: I’m fine thanks - how are you?

Colleague: I’m fine. Can you send me that sales spreadsheet please?

I mean I guess I don’t have to ask them how they are, but it feels rude not to after they have asked how I am! But really, are either of us going to type about how we really are on a teams chat? And without any context of what they actually want I can’t really say how busy I am. Honestly it would save so much time if they just wrote

Hi Ultravox. Could you send me that sales spreadsheet please?

YABU: you are a killjoy - they are just being nice and you should smalltalk for a bit and ask them how they are too

YANBU: it’s a waste of time and typing - just cut to the chase!

If I send "hi" it means I mistimed the coordination between shift and enter that teams requires for a soft paragraph break without sending. More likely if I've been doing lots on word/outlook than if I've been on teams for a while ...

Option 2 is missing backspace and getting enter instead...

Yes I need to get better at typing!!

I always assume this is what’s happened so I ignore ‘hi’ messages until the person has had chance to write the rest of their message.

They are trying to be polite and maybe don't know how to go about it. Possibly they are ND or just struggle with social skills. Did it really ruin your day or can you just continue with it?

It drives me mental.

To an extent this is a me thing, as I acknowledge that I have a fragile attention span and being interrupted by a 'hi' then waiting however long them to get to the fucking point is a nightmare for me, but really, how hard is it to just type the whole bloody thing?!

I notice this particularly among younger team members (I am a Xennial). The greatest thing I ever did for my own sanity was teach grad intakes about the art of the soft return.

hahaha! Yes. Done in one is my new work mantra!!!

hahahahha. I HATE it when people just send one message 'hi kbroughton'. and then you have to into teams and say hi. Just ask what you want and be on your merry way!

My boss does this but it’s more like:

Boss: Hi

Me: Hi 😊

Boss: Oh sorry got distracted - can you do XYZ

Me: No worries (secretly thinking why not just type it all in one line, then send!)

As someone with ADHD being interrupted with a non productive message (s) is actually really challenging.

Oh I work on a project with a ‘Hi’ person, I always found it a bit odd! I’m very much of the ‘Hey, please can you send me that spreadsheet’ persuasion!

Exactly this. That way the pleasantries are taken care of but you still get to the point. Just 'Hi'/'How are you' etc would drive me crackers, I'm glad no one I work with does this.

YANBU

My pet peeve especially when they then take a while to reply after the Hi. Waste of time as I'm then just waiting around - just get to the point.

Anyone that send me a teams message that says either
Hi
Or hello usernames
or any variant with no actual message gets ignored by me. Completely.

When my boss wants a favour, he starts his message with a solitary hi

Even worse when someone messages Hi and then disappears for ages and I'm left hanging wondering whether to crack on with my lunch break 🙃

Yes! Do we have the same boss 🤣

I manage a big team and the work we do is very confidential. We’re often presenting from our laptops/sharing screens on Teams so we always start a conversation with “Hi” to give the recipient a chance to indicate that now’s not a good time to launch straight into a work-related discussion as their messages may be visible to an audience.

Oh I hate it SO MUCH. Fine to do the social niceties but do it in the same message!

I’ve had this with my boss, I just said “Hi, I’m going on lunch but I’ll be back at 1.30 if you need me”

I am the straight forward type. need something, ask for it..politely ofcourse (because I am a woman and have been trained not to demand things), no time for chit chat. Hate it.

But it wasn't unproductive, it was a couple of attempts at small talk and then they jumped straight into the purpose of the original message.

I also have ADHD and I can work myself up in knots because I struggle with getting the right tone when mixing personal and business. I'd be really upset if my attempts to get it right got torn apart on Mumsnet.

Really? Just hi?! Not “Hi, have you got a minute” or “can I run something by you?” So strange to me 🤣

You do know you can set your notifications to private so that the content of a message doesn't appear when you're screen-sharing?

If they are presenting they should be on DND so messages don't pop up on their screen

It is unproductive. As they could have sent one message, saying: 'hi Kbroughton, hope you are having a fun day. Region have asked for the XY3 metrics by 4, painful. Let me know if that is going to be a problem.

Rather than.

Hi Kbroughton,
Me: Hi
time. time time.

How are you>
Me: good thanks, how are you
time time time

Good thanks.
time time time

sorry to ask but Region have asked for the XY3 metrics by 4

How is that not unproductive? As an ADHDer i take immediate action to things. so if I am sent a message i respond. Quite often this Hi messages can span hours, and me being me, I am waiting for that message,

And you will see that the vast amount of people equally find it challenging. As a fellow ADHDer it is unusual to do the hi thing because we tend to be quick quick quick but we are all different.