I have a complicated relationship with this situation. On the one hand, just tell me what you want. On the other hand, if you feel rude go ahead and send me a hello first. But on the other other hand it distracts me until you say what you want. But on the other other other hand if I'm doing something else I shouldn't be stopping to check my chats which are necessarily not urgent. But on the other other other other hand what if it is urgent? So then I check it and it just says "Hello". And I can see them typing so I wait 3 or 4 minutes. And then they stop and the typing bubbles go away, so I go back to what I was doing and then they finally send their question: "How are you?"
Don't Just Say "Hello" in Chat
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Re: Don't Just Say "Hello" in Chat
#72I have a complicated relationship with this situation. On the one hand, just tell me what you want. On the other hand, if you feel rude go ahead and send me a hello first. But on the other other hand it distracts me until you say what you want. But on the other other other hand if I'm doing something else I shouldn't be stopping to check my chats which are necessarily not urgent. But on the other other other other ha…
1. Write what you want
2. Cut it
3. Write "Hello".
4. Paste it.
Re: Don't Just Say "Hello" in Chat
#73Re: Don't Just Say "Hello" in Chat
#74I've worked entirely remotely at companies of a variety of sizes since 2017 and didn't know people do this. Who are the people who do this? I don't mean to imply they don't exist. I genuinely want to know who they are. Like is it a generational thing? A role thing? Someone else's thing?
You get some weird shit depending on company cultures.
Tools also affect it. Teams is terrible for “structural”, long-lived team chats (oh, the irony!) like are totally natural in, say, Slack, so tends to push more stuff into meetings and ad-hoc group chats. It’s a really bizarre (and endlessly irritating) design choice. You also can’t “digress” within the same channel like you can in Slack without spamming the main chat.
Worse tools = people use them differently (worse) like calling more and doing more private messaging. Add corporate, division, and individual cultures and preferences, and you can get all kinds of weird stuff going on, including the bare “hello”.
Re: Don't Just Say "Hello" in Chat
#75If the person trying to communicate with me doesn't understand or isn't aware of the advantages of asynchronous communication, I won't teach them, and I'll communicate as if those advantages don't exist. For example:
- Hi
- Hi
- Do you know what time it is?
- Yes
- Can you tell me?
- Yes
And so on ad infinitum.
Re: Don't Just Say "Hello" in Chat
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or you can achieve exactly the same thing by just sending whatever message you were going to send anyway.
But I might not send it anyway, that's the issue.
Why would you message everyone “hello” if you’re not going to send the message?
“Hello”
“Yes?”
“Nevermind.”
What?
Re: Don't Just Say "Hello" in Chat
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would not send out multiple "Do you have time to hop on a call for 5 mins?" b/c then they might call me before I delete the message.
Who on earth calls without confirming you meant right now? But even if it happens, take the call, decline any others that come in, and explain in 5 minutes. You've still saved everybody time.
Who doesn’t let the person who requested the call initiate the call?
Re: Don't Just Say "Hello" in Chat
#78my sentiments exactly. other peeve of mine "hey can I ask you a question?" like.. yes my dude, ask the question instead of asking if you can ask the question.
The obvious reply is "you just did".
Then they will respond with "can I ask you another question" and you reply again with "you just did".
Finally they'll have to ask "can I ask you another question after this one" to which you can reply "yes".
Re: Don't Just Say "Hello" in Chat
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
true, but the same is true for email. I use IM as more informal, (AND/)OR conversations with likely back-and-forth, that may require the other person to be present to be of use.
So ask them for a time they're available to do that. Don't just ping them and hope to get lucky. Even if they have time to send you a "Hi" back, that doesn't mean they have time to talk to you, so you're going to have to ask that anyway.
“Hey—have you got some time to chat about Fizz today? [Optional second sentence indicating level of urgency in your part]”
If they don’t get back immediately, you can safely assume “right now” is not a time they have. If they actually don’t know shit about Fizz and you need to bug someone else, they can communicate that when convenient without needing you at your keyboard when they do it, because at least they know WTF you want to chat about.
There is no benefit to just “hello.”
Re: Don't Just Say "Hello" in Chat
#80Entitled much?
I just learned to not care. I say "hi" to notify that I'm there and let them type. When an answer is required from me I pay attention, think and answer. Until then I ignore it.
I found it so much easier for me to learn not to be (too) distracted than to lose my mind trying to educate humanity to adapt to me.