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!

Genius!

used to hate this, don’t have it anymore at current place, its fully wfh and they have it written in the onboarding stuff about chat etiquette to get to the point, I’m guessing a manager got sick of the hi type pointless messages and wrote it in 😂

I'm field based and a lot of colleagues put hi, I think to show that we can get back to them when we are able but if that was me I would forget what I wanted to talk to them about. I always put hi, hope you’re well. And either can you call me when you’re free re… or can you help with…

the only time I fail is when I accidentally hit enter and send just hi and I feel like a prize twat. It’s nice to be nice but not too nice. They don’t care how I am and I can’t say I’m bothered either.

YANBU - that's just plain stupid. I only use Teams for actual video calls, otherwise I contact people by email. Similarly, you'd never email somebody going "hi" then waiting for them to reply, then sending another email asking how they are before finally sending a third email with the actual work-related reason to contact them in the first place. What I waste of time. I'd 100% hate that.

YANBU.

Even more so when you get:

Hi

You say hi back then then see typing dots for 5 fucking minutes so have to sit there and wait.

NO.

Just say 'Hi, hope you're well, wanted to ask you about x, y and z' all in one fucking message.

So, yes it annoys me a bit. 😁

You don't have to go in to Teams and respond. Just ignore until they actually ask you something.

Or do what I do and only turn on Teams when you have an actual meeting. If it's urgent they will email you. If it's not urgent, you've just saved yourself some hassle. Mind you, this only works if you aren't on teams meetings all the time. I would rarely have more than 2 meetings in a day.

I started doing this after covid. Nobody ever used teams for general crap before that but all our admin staff seem to use it for everything and all the notifications, documents loaded, messages etc drive me mad if I have teams on.

No. That just encourages them. Ignore until they actually tell you what they want.

I agree with you but sometimes I click return by mistake and it send the hi then I have to do another message about what I actually wanted to say 🤣

I hate this - it’s like being duped into replying! I’ve said hi back so they know I’m online and available and I feel like I have to do whatever they’re looking for immediately.

I would just reply to “hi” with “what can I help you with?”. Bloody time wasters.

I am on Teams all the time, I have probably around 5/6 team meetings per day, sometimes more. I do do not disturb sometimes, but I work in a fast paced environment and I do need to know the messages that are coming through. Today I have had 4 already and a further 5 to go! And I am ADHD - when people message me Hi, I struggle not to respond, and even when I don't I am waiting for the end of the message.

I don’t mind the preamble from people I’m really friendly with (I’d still rather they cut to the chase though) but when my boss does it it drives me mad - such a time waster! And he literally couldn’t give less of a shit about how I am, it’s just pointless waffle! Would much rather it was a more direct “Hi Chosen, when you’ve got time could you please xxx”. Stop wasting both of our time!

YANBU. What the hell is wrong with just saying 'Hi colleague, would you mind sending over the sales spreadsheet pls? Thx'

Or you could just edit the “hi” message to add the rest and the net result is one message.

My neighbour does this on WhatsApp.
find it so annoying
“Hi” presses send
I open phone and watch “Gemma is typing” whilst she sends next sentence. Presses send…

Bet she does it at work too. Irrationally drives me nuts and she’s an otherwise lovely person.

Typing like that once you’re in an active Teams / WhatsApp convo fine. Not with the opener ….put it all one!

i got the lecture that i should ask how someone is first before just jumping in with my request because its rude, which i get but if you know how or what they will say then whats the point its just word play before business

My biggest peeve is people starting off with “I hope you’re well”. Just why?! If I wasn’t well, I’d be off sick. And even if I was sick and at work, I’m not likely to tell a colleague my health woes. It’s just a pointless filler.

Hi, how are you doing?
Can you send me bla bla bla
All in the same text do for me
I don't wait for the answer of any single item

YANBU. Just tell me what you want fgs!

Don’t get me started on this. I absolutely hate it. So insincere and a complete waste of time.

It’s the hard return quandary, do a soft return everyone!

some people, very few thankfully won’t move on unless you reply to the hi. Probably they think they are being polite, checking you are free or something?

This is a pet peeve of mine!

I worked once on a crazy busy team on a high profile project where we needed to streamline communication to stop everyone getting overwhelmed and we made it a rule that this wasn’t allowed, it was great.

It’s fine to say hi and add some pleasantries but add your question to the same message, the incessant pinging then the waiting while they type their actual message is infuriating!

That's one thing if you're emailing someone for the first time. But with colleagues who you speak to multiple times a day it would be ridiculous to say "hi, hope you're well?" every time you send a Teams message.

I think there's far too much time-wasting and waffle in emails tbh: I hate the idea of having to pretend to care how someone is. But that is at least the convention and it softens things. In a Teams email it's just dead time.

This reminds me of when I used to sit next to a colleague (they weren't the brightest to be fair) and every single bloody email started with:

"Dear Life on Mars
I hope you are well"

I wanted to send one back saying "I have the misfortune to sit next to you for at least a few hours of every working day so you know I am well, all I want is for you to email me over that document I have literally asked you about 5 minutes ago"

He could have simply attached the relevant document with a "please see attached as requested" or "here is the document you need" but no, we were through this whole inane palaver every single time

Someone I work with just writes “call?”

Multiple times a day. Even when my status shows I’m busy or on leave.

drives me fucking insane.

oh those pings! I am retired now but I still get triggered when my phone pings. My last year at work was all Covid stuff and I was working in two teams and my work phone used to ping constantly. Muting them was not realistic as I needed to be in touch with both parts of my job. Horrible time