Teams etiquette

[Fudgeytastic]

I’m not sure if it’s me being too sensitive but Teams etiquette in my new role has gone out the window!

I’m showing as red / busy. Surely you would message someone to see if they are free to talk before steaming in with a call?

Red - In a meeting. Just do not call when I’m in a meeting!!

Do not disturb - message me and I’ll call you back. I do not wish to be disturbed by a call.

Yellow / away. For the love of god, WHY CALL WHEN I AM CLEARLY NOT AT MY DESK?!

I’m having a bad day, can you tell? Or am I being too precious?

Asking 'are you free' is good manners. Takes two seconds to reply 'no' or 'yes', three to say when you are available.

It’s not blindingly obvious you’re busy, though.

Why? Red means in a meeting or busy. Or have I misunderstood you?

Red means there’s something in your diary. But that doesn’t mean you’re busy. You might not be attending that meeting or it might be a reminder to do something and you’ve done it.
That’s why it’s not ‘blindingly obvious’.

I have turned the colour off. I am permanently grey so that people either message first or check my calendar. My immediate team including my supervisor and anyone else I closely collaborate with know this. Anyone else get to the back of the line, I will get to you when I have time.

Don’t answer the call, then. If it’s urgent they will message you.

I don't even think about it.

If i need to speak to someone I call, if it's not conversation worthy I message.

If I'm in a meeting and someone rings I just get the notification, it's fine

I find it annoying if people message me to check if it's OK to call. Just call, if i can answer I will.

So often the red/ yellow/ green is inaccurate anyway.

I agree: I think a lot of people feel the rules of etiquette somehow don’t apply on Teams or the etiquette hasn’t fully settled. At my place people use it to do things they know they wouldn’t get away with in real life.

I have a colleague who calls me on Teams three ir four times a day to ask questions which he could have emailed or messaged. Often it’s because he wants a moan about something or shoot the breeze and he finds some incredibly trivial excuse to call me so he can offload. I find it incredibly self indulgent and childish tbh and I have asked him not to do it but he still does it.

So many people project their personal shit onto professional comms. I am so over it. Learn how to interact appropriately with people and stop being a drain on their time. I am busy and I’m not your friend or your therapist.

If someone calls me when I can't answer I just don't answer. I don't consider it rude for them to have tried.

Depends in who i am ringing and why. If I need to escalate something urgently and someone is on red I tend to check their diary to see if its a meeting finishing soon and will message to ask if they can call when free
Yellow or green I would just ring
You need to uses your DND more

Worst etiquette I experienced was being dialled into meetings by someone from a different department. If you declined the call they would try again then go round the team. If you answered you were suddenly in a meeting with loads of people expecting an immediate answer about something with no context.
Imagine doing that in an office just dragging someone out their chair and into a meeting room 🙄

'Do not disturb' should send calls straight to voicemail.

It’s a question of frequency and intent I think. In general if someone calls me on Teams I tend to assume its a) urgent or b) something that is too complex or requires too much explanation to type out. I’m fine with that.

But if someone calls repeatedly with no consideration of what else I might be doing and asks me trivial questions which they could have figured out the answer to on their own it pisses me off.

They are presuming that their time is more important than mine. Why does their need to offload about their personal life take precedence over my need to do my job?

Shocking! How ever did you cope.

Lots of ridiculous over thinking here.
If you want to speak to someone,
heaven forbid, in person, call them. If they can’t or don’t want to answer they don’t answer. Both parties move on with their day. It’s unbelievably simple.

Jeez what a nightmare if your submission to Teams is so deep that you’re actually losing your shit. Stop taking Microsoft products so seriously. It’s not real.

It was tough, but I got through it. Thanks for your concern 😉

Really annoys me when people call on teams without checking first. It takes a second.

It's not about the products but your working relationship with the people using them.
Can't believe that needed explaining!

You've been lucky. If I'm working to a deadline, then "Do not disturb" emphatically means what it says. Sometimes you don't have time to engage.

@Shoxfordian there is a URL for that problem. https://nohello.net/en/ It used to happen to me all the time, someone says "hello" then I've been interrupted whilst they type in their question. Now I just put that URL in and it's stopped a lot of the problem.

It’s not the case though that you are definitely busy when red. It just means something is in the diary. It says in a call
if in a call.
red and in a meeting usually actually means available as haven’t joined the meeting. Unless its a real life meeting and the
pwrson didn’t join it on teams of course !

I think you’ve made up your own etiquette. I won’t ring if you’re showing “in a call”, but I will if red and “in a meeting” as usually this is just a call in my diary that has finished early so I am actually free for a call. Yellow I’m free for a call too as I’m usually at my desk just doing something paper based, or travelling to or from a meeting and perfectly contactable.

If I don’t want to take calls, I go on do not disturb and it diverts all calls straight to voicemail.

But why would I waste that second? I’ll know whether or not you can answer my call when you either do or don’t answer my call…

Goodness, a lot of you would have had nervous breakdowns if you worked in an office back when the only way to contact someone would be by calling them on the phone!

Red doesn't necessarily mean you are in a meeting. If you put a block in your diary for something like "admin time" it will show as red on Teams. Hope that helps.