Microsoft Teams chats

[ItsOnlyMee1]

Does it piss anybody else off when a colleague says hello/good morning in Teams and then waits for you to respond before telling you what they want?

It's infuriating!

Yes! I ignore them until they tell me what they want which I will then prioritise in my own time. I feel like they are making sure they have your attention so you can attend to their request immediately instead of when it suits you.

It’s not generally the culture where I work but if I got that they would be left on read.

I ignore too. I once had an unanswered message about 6 weeks old and they still hadn’t asked me for anything, it can’t have been too important.

Especially if you reply instantly, and then they wait several hours to reply again. Why not wait until you had time to type whatever you wanted to type before starting this conversation!

yes someone in my team always starts with “hey, how are you ☺️?” So I ignore until they actually get to the point. 9/10 they don’t follow it up so it can’t have been very important!

why would you ignore someone saying hi, how are you? No wonder they didn’t follow up! Just say hi, how can I help?

Because it's a distraction and a pain in the arse. If they asked their question first time out, you're only interrupted once and know what they actually want.

I suspect you're not someone who uses Teams?

Put DND on if you aren't free? Otherwise behave like you would face to face

Haha yes ! “Hi, hope you’re well?”
then “…” indicating they’re typing again. Just say what you want and quit the niceties

Or maybe sometimes they were actually just saying hi, how are you?

To me, sending a teams message is more akin to walking over to someone's desk and having a chat with them, as we used to do it in the old days - it's not the communication method you use when you have a detailed request for action/information that is to be looked at and responded to on the person's usual timescale but not immediately, I'd send an email with all the details in that case. I send teams messages either because I need to talk to the person and/or because we have a casual/informal kind of relationship where chat is usual/encouraged. In either instance I may not want/need to talk to them right this second if they're busy with something else or just don't fancy talking to me right now (fair!), in which case you need the digital equivalent of going and hovering in their eyeline so they can either smile and welcome you for a chat or wave you away if they're deep into something else or talking to someone else - I think that's what the 'hello' messagers are trying to do. I get that it can be annoying if people do it excessively but you can just ignore? Personally unless it's my very close colleagues i do add a bit more such as 'hello, hope you're well, can we have a chat about X when you're free' but it can end up being quite a long winded message then with excessive fluff which is equally irritating. I have one very abrupt colleague whose messages just say things like 'discussion re X now?' which feels a bit terse, as though he's annoyed about X!

I do admit that between ourselves in the team we're a bit more shorthand and just send wave emojis or GIFs if we're at a loose end and want a chat which do quite often go ignored if our chat schedules misalign!

I use Teams all day every day but I still have the basic social awareness to know that some people feel rude jumping straight in with a question.

But I don't expect social awareness from people who think it's reasonable to ignore a colleague saying hello.

Personally I combine a hello with the question in my initial message, but I don't expect everybody to be the same.

Agree @wiredandtired. I often get Teams messages that are just a general check in.

It depends who is sending the message. If it’s someone I know well they very likely just saying hi. I don’t work on the same continent as most of my work friends, so it’s the equivalent of running into them at the coffee machine.

If it’s someone I don’t know I will wait for them to ask what they need to ask before responding generally.

I worked with a woman who had a pinned message on her Teams, something like, ‘I’ve adopted the No Hello method, please message me with your request, I will not reply to messages just saying Hello’

I’d rather ‘how are you’ than I hope you are well. No you don’t, you don’t know me, just tell me what you want.

I think your characterisation of this as lacking "social awareness" is unfair.

100% agree and it drives me crazy. As an HR manager, I automatically assume the worst and sit waiting to see what latest issue someone is having.

Are you aware that some people feel rude just jumping straight into their request?

Either you are aware but just feel that you can't be bothered with social courtesies (which is at the least quite abrupt and, at the worst, rude)

Or you aren't aware, which sounds like a lack of social awareness.

When you interact with your colleagues you are dealing with humans with all their complexities, not typing input into a computer algorithm. Between you, you need to find a comfortable way of behaving. If you are just 'this is how I am, suck it up', don't be surprised if you lose the benefit that others get from being considerate; like people being prepared to put themselves out to help you when you're in a jam. Consideration is the oil that makes human gears run smoothly

One of my colleagues has a display message saying dont do it.

Something to the effect of "Dont message me a simple greeting, explain in your initial message what you want. I wont respond to "Hi, Hello, Good morning ".

At first I thought how rude! but not any more.

Not rude, just a busy professional who doesn't always have capacity. If you're really that scared (of what?!) then there's nothing stopping you messaging "hello, how was your weekend? Please could you tell me where the TPS reports are held?"

Perhaps they were just greeting you and being friendly?

Blimey some of you are so rude. I don’t reply immediately if someone can’t be bothered to say hi, how are you, or hope you are well, or did you have a nice holiday. You wouldn’t walk upto someone’s desk ( old days) and say I want this document. You would say hello initially and hopefully ask how they are. Just basic manners.

I think this is the best way to do it. Nothing at all wrong with a few pleasantries, but also ask the actual question!

It irritates me a little, like OP I include my hello with the question, but thinking about it, some people haven't mastered 'shift enter' to create a new line and it could be they're thinking of it as one message but pressing enter for their new line which is sending the 'hello' as a separate message.