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!

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.

You have to teach them...

By making a request to them as you expressed

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.

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.

This!

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.

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

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

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".

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.

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.

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.

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".

If I’m using teams on my phone I can hit return and it starts a new paragraph, at times I’ve been on the laptop and forgotten it doesn't do that and I’ve sent ‘hi X’ then frantically typed the rest of the message.

But you would see the … if that was the case here. If anyone sent me ‘hi’ I’d ignore it until they got to the point! Maybe I’m rude.

When you speak for most people, please don't include me. There's no pass/aggress there at all.

I'm being 100% genuine.

And I still hope you have a lovely weekend 😊

My mate does this. He'll send a "Hi"...

then all you see is
David is typing...
David is typing...
David is typing...
David is typing...
David is typing...
David is typing...
David is typing...
David is typing...
David is typing...
David is typing...
... For the next five minutes before he hits enter and says something like "all ok with you?".

TYPE WITH MORE THAN TWO FINGERS DAVID FFS.

I presume "hi" messages are to be ignored until the actual message is also on the screen.
Alternatively, I guess I would answer "hi" with "tell me :-)".

I work on very confidential stuff at times and I can confidently say none of us need to do it that way for that reason.

[Sorry, clarification: I was replying to the earlier poster.]

I don't respond to just a hi, ever, or answer calls from people who just call regardless of what your Teams status is and without checking if you have time to chat first. I work with one person who does the hi thing, I never respond, and then she rarely follows up with another message, so clearly it's not important!

General etiquette in my place is a 'hi X, do you have 5 mins to chat about XYZ please' or 'hi x, hope you had a good weekend (or whatever), can you please do XYZ"

Most people, by definition, does not include all people.

I also hate this. Especially followed by the … for ages. Just say it in one and hurry up ffs.

Too funny! 🤣

Thanks. Every day's a school day!

I use Teams a lot and very rarely have I just received a 'Hi'. On the odd occasion I have it's been because the person has accidentally hit enter to do a new line and sent the message before they've finished...I know this because they've then said 'sorry pressed to soon' or whatever. I've done this myself maybe a couple of times.

Thinking about it there's one new person from another team who does send me 'Hi' messages though. I've always just ignored them thinking it's the above (and its weird she makes that mistake so often) and she'll write something more shortly. Having read this thread I now know she doesn't write more because I never respond! It's definitely not culture at our place to do it...I wonder if she thinks no one likes her...I feel bad now!

Oh god, just… no. So annoying 🤣