AIBU to dread a new week as MS Teams chat at work driving me absolutely berserk?!

[blossom2026]

I know this isn't the worst problem in the world - but with every Sunday that comes along, I increasingly dread Mondays and going back to work. It's not the people individually - it's the bloody Teams chat. I work in a reactive service and we are required to be logged in and active on our MS Teams group team chat from 9am - 5pm, whether WFH or in the office, as this is where important stuff is shared and division of work is agreed. Fair enough. What isn't fair enough is the amount of completely non-work related bollocks that goes in there too, with the constant DING DING DING when I'm trying to fucking work. I don't give a fuck if your cat was just sick on your rug, Sandra. No didn't watch fucking Love Island and I don't care how long it took you to get a coffee in Greggs this morning. Fuck off with your dings you absolute bunch of nobheads. NO I can't mute it because I might miss something important. Please join me in my rant against this crime against employment.

That's maddening. Can you suggest a separate channel for the inane shit? I'd come down really hard on that level of distraction and time wasting.

Suggest an additional channel for non work chat, you can mute that then

We are all slaves to the dinging of the teams chat for sure!

If you really wanted to do something you could make the very valid point that key operational messages could be missed and so could there be a separate team wellbeing chat for “chat” that you can then ignore?

Could you suggest another non related chat group to ensure no key info is missed - then mute it?

I am not working atm and the calmness from not having the teams notification on is really healthy. However I still feel jumpy reading about teams and am dreading going back to work.

You just need to suggest a separate “general” chat that you can mute and keep the main one for important updates only. We have one at work that has hundreds of people in globally, it is for high priority (P1 or P2) incidents only. If someone posts something else they get told to take it to another chat.

Turn off the sound.
It stops the triggering 'ting'
It was a game changer for me..

Nice to see some immediate sensible suggestions!! I wish I could insist on a separate social chat (and if I was a manager I would!) but I am a mere pleb, so no :(

It's hard to explain the situation without being outing, but I can only really mute the chat when I am demonstrably busy (reactive service) - otherwise I just have to turn the volume off on my laptop and play the idiot if someone tries to call me haha. Honestly, why are other humans so fucking annoying 😉

You need to raise this with your line management/data controller. It’s not on you to sort personally. The employer’s communications platform is not being used as intended and it’s also interfering with your ability to do your job well.

In most workplaces, dare I say, using the employer’s communications platform for non-work related chitchat is considered misconduct. Further, the fact that things like love island are being discussed could risk the employer’s commitment to inclusivity if some employees are offended for religious or cultural reasons.

Sorry you feel that way - yeah that ping fucking ting bing noise is so triggering, I think we should collectively hunt the person down responsible for giving that to us!! Glad you're feeling healthier without it and hope you can find peace and a great new job xx

Mute notifications but keep Twams open on one screen, they still show up new messages when you are in Teams but you don't get the ding or the little dialogue box come up.

Others shoildn't be able to see you have mutes notifications.

Also raise it at a team meeting - "the Teams chat is not useful for work as it is becoming clogged up with irrelevant chat, can we create a separate social channel to post non urgent or social updates."

Even though you're not a manager you can still call out the risk of missing important updates or your official work records being full of inappropriate moron chat.

Oh please may I borrow you to give a TED talk to my team? haha, you sound like the boss I need in my life x

Nobody but me seems to think this is an issue - we have managers in the chat who think it's all very entertaining when 100 gifs get shared in an hour. I might attempt to join in for 5 minutes here and there if I'm not busy (so as to not look like an uptight cow) but it's absolutely exhausting when it's all day.

"Morning"
"I'm just going downstairs to make breakfast"
"Back"
"OMG the dog just got excited about the postman"
"Going to the bank"
"Back"
"Got to go out again at 2"
"OMG guys it's so cold I've had to put the heating on"
"Oh yeah it's so cold"
"I might freeze here. Just popping out"
"Back"

ALL FUCKING DAY

I'd set up a separate chat with just the team and not management and start it as the "coffee and chat" conversation or something equally twee.

I work with people who have separate chats for EVERYTHING though and it drives me fucking mad. We're the same group in almost every one, and everything is compartmentalised and it's impossible to find notes from last week because it could be on a meeting chat, a group chat or email or something I fucking imagined.

Meanwhile someone else has control of our group SharePoint and you cannot drag and drop anything in or out of it and no one seems to know why - can anyone advise me on how to get that fixed? IT says they can't do it, it's for the page owner to sort but she doesn't know how!! FFS.

The managers are joining in as it’s seen as team building and creating a positive team work environment. It doesn’t mean they wouldn’t be open to a very logical suggestion of a separate chat for important key updates so they don’t get lost. It’s a bit odd that something bothers you so much, there’s a logical solution, but you won’t bother to suggest it to your manager.

Oh no that sounds like torture!!! I don't mind being unpopular when the time comes, I just haven't been there long enough!! haha - in your case I would hope that if you can't tell everyone to get a fucking grip, then someone can. As for the Sharepoint thing, can you get IT to grant access to someone else to the permissions? If not, then the manager needs to escalate a job to IT to get everything in that folder backed up and then delete the fucking thing and start again. What a nightmare. Why do we need to work and shorten our lifespans for these fucking colleagues?!!

What industry/business is this if employees can waste so much time? Surely not a profitable one, unless some large government contract has just been landed.

Also I am a big fan of important comms being sent by email.

Turn off the sound and check it regularly. No need to be a drama llama.

We use teams only for meetings and general chitchat - emails are used for important stuff.

@CornishPorsche sharepoint doesn't have the ability to drag and drop from one SP folder to another. It's intensely annoying. Also 'new' outlook doesn't allow drag and drop of emails to SP like old outlook did. So it's probably not something your site owner can do anything about.

@blossom2026so much sympathy with the chatting bollocks ding ding ding! I do mute it sometimes so I can concentrate, but inevitably that's when the important message comes in...

If people are using the Teams chat even for social conversations, then missing important messages are quite likely. I think in this scenario you are absolutely fine to raise it with your manager or team. Or else, make a suggestion that if its important, then the specific person should be tagged or use the @everyone option. Then you can safely ignore/mute the chat. This anxiety is certainly not healthy.

How do you know that the managers are joining in? I haven't said that have I? In my workplace the management are very hands-off but they have sight of the Teams chat throughout the day. I have mentioned the issue to them and have said that it's perhaps not helpful for all of the chatter to be contained within a work-related group. It would definitely be better contained within a separate group which can be dipped in and out of, whoever isn't busy at the time can dip in and out of it without distracting others from their work. Is that ok for you, as it sounds like you might recognise yourself from my post!

Everyone works very hard - it's just terribly managed and allows a clique of people to chat to each other all day.

It does though, because it works in my other team page!! I can sit with them both open and do it in one, not the other.... It's berry confusing.