Please don't say just hello in chat (2013)

Post by birdyrooster » Sat, Jan 23, 2021, 5:36 PM UTC

kempbellt wrote: post #134

jasode wrote: post #33

>People who do this are generally trying to be polite by not jumping right into the request, like one would in person or on the phone - and that's great! Different people have different reasons but I notice that many people that do a naked "hi" / "hey" are trying to see if the receiver is present for an immediate reply. In other words, the sender deliberately wants a synchronous instead of asynchronous convo. They do…

This is a common theme in my workplace. Especially with everyone working remote and odd hours these days. We use both email and Slack, but most conversations tend to be asynchronous regardless and I frequently wonder why we even have an instant messenger. That said, I find that even if a message is asynchronous, it is much easier to track conversation flow via slack than email. Reply chains and indentations get messy…

Post by nelsondev » Sat, Jan 23, 2021, 5:37 PM UTC

dvtrn wrote: post #93

mackatsol wrote: post #35

I don't mind that 'hello' or 'hi mackatsol' .. as I know more is coming. What drives me crazy is people who say "can I ask you a question?" I really try hard not to say "you just did". None of those compare to those folks who do not understand that to help them we need details. How do I infer what a problem is without any details? I used to ask all sorts of questions so as to be able to help them. Now I tend to post…

I feel this in my bones, and have been trying to get engineering managers to work with their teams on creating better tickets because in a company of nearly a two hundred developers including a massive overseas contingent, but a painfully understaffed ops and infrastructure team of 3: “My build doesn’t work, please prioritize” Does not help me help you. I wish I were making it up that this is the level of detail with…

Post by FabHK » Sat, Jan 23, 2021, 5:39 PM UTC

Cd00d wrote: post #114

I think it's amusing that both the "don't do" and "do this" examples are exactly the same length and time investment for both parties. I agree with the author, but it does mildly undermine the point.

Post by eganist » Sat, Jan 23, 2021, 5:42 PM UTC

gregmac wrote: post #150

eganist wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Wanting a synchronous conversation is a pretty arrogant grab of someone else's time. This is an assumption, and not always a valid one. There are plenty of circumstances where synchronous comms are warranted, such as when matters are urgent for all parties or when the respondent has a reputation for losing track of async comms. Editing to add: I agree that "hey" and "hi" etc. are terrible openings. However, opening…

Absolutely, but it's still polite to schedule the synchronous call via async. "hey, need to talk urgently about x, are you available at 2?" or "...can you call me ASAP?" There's very few situations that warrant getting someone else to unexpectedly drop whatever they're doing and pay attention to you, right now. On the other hand, I'd actually go further and say there's lots of situations where sync communications is…

Post by allknowingfrog » Sat, Jan 23, 2021, 5:43 PM UTC

nullc wrote: post #169

I don't think this advice is useful because a lot of the time the reason people are doing this is the reason people don't like it. When someone states their request outright the recipient may be "conditionally there" based on the content of the request: They'll reply if they find the question interesting/relevant and worth interrupting what they're doing and put it off otherwise. The asker, however, would prefer thei…