Page 3 | Teams etiquette

Fudgeytastic · 2025-12-11T14:46:08+00:00

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?

Ineffable23 · 12/12/2025 09:33

Ifeeltheneedtheneedforcoffee · 12/12/2025 08:04

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 🙄

Now this seems totally normal to me - if you were in a meeting and everyone was in in the office, and you didn't have an answer but you thought someone else would, surely you wouldn't just sit there and go "well, they aren't in this meeting room, so we can't possibly answer that question", you'd go and find them?

I get this all the time but do it equally to just as many people in return. I would probably view it was good form to drop someone a message before I dragged them into a 5+ person meeting, but anything with just a couple of people would previously have been an at desk chat and you'd have spun round on your chair and gone "hey Abbie, can you help us with this?" And they would have come over.

ConflictofInterest · 12/12/2025 09:39

You're overcomplicating it. I pay no attention to the Teams colour dot or out of office message because it's rarely accurate and people expect you to be psychic-oh yes my out of office is on because I'm doing a thing but I'm actually in all day today so you could have called. If need to speak to someone I would just call. If they answer great if they don't also great I can tell my manager yes I called them at X but they didn't answer. They're just working like you are. If you don't want to answer it, just don't and change the settings so you don't even hear it. Mine is all fully muted and I just get missed calls pop up. I then message them and most of the time it's sorted by then anyway.

Shoxfordian · 12/12/2025 09:43

Love that @InSpainTheRain but not sure my company would 😄

topcat2014 · 12/12/2025 09:46

Thing is, back when we just had telephones you just rang, unless it was a very big cheese with a PA who you rang first.

loonyloo · 12/12/2025 10:00

Upsetbetty · 11/12/2025 15:38

That’s what do not disturb is for…off you don’t want calls it stops them

No it bloody doesn't! I thought it auto-rejected calls but then I was in the middle of an interview (on Teams) for a new job in my organisation. I'd put myself on Do Not Disturb before the interview. A call came through from a person I'd never spoken to before from another department. I rejected it and the gobshite immediately tried to call me again so I had to reject it a second time. I got slightly flustered and had to explain to the panel what was going on. Luckily they were fine with it and I got the job anyway but it really took me by surprise

Brainstorm23 · 12/12/2025 11:04

It's people who type "Hello how are you?" and then spend 5 minutes tying out their actual question while you wait. It's drives me absolutely crazy.

Ifeeltheneedtheneedforcoffee · 12/12/2025 15:07

Ineffable23 · 12/12/2025 09:33

Now this seems totally normal to me - if you were in a meeting and everyone was in in the office, and you didn't have an answer but you thought someone else would, surely you wouldn't just sit there and go "well, they aren't in this meeting room, so we can't possibly answer that question", you'd go and find them?

I get this all the time but do it equally to just as many people in return. I would probably view it was good form to drop someone a message before I dragged them into a 5+ person meeting, but anything with just a couple of people would previously have been an at desk chat and you'd have spun round on your chair and gone "hey Abbie, can you help us with this?" And they would have come over.

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That is probably fair enough in a small group of people you work with daily and in my team we may call someone who is on green into a chat
This was ringing someone from another department who you dont routinely work with into large meetings and demanding answers with no warning. A message before to ask if you could join would have been polite.
I would never walk into another teams office, interrupt their own meeting to request someone leaves and joins my meeting which would be the face to face equivalent
It comes across very much like "our question is much more important, you may be on a call/busy but we want you to answer to us now"

AgnesX · 12/12/2025 16:27

Brightbluesomething · 12/12/2025 07:37

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’.

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If I was red and you called with no prior warning I'd not be happy. It's red for a reason funnily enough.