Pet hate: "Hi, how are you?" as an opener on work chat software

Man of Honour
Joined
13 Oct 2006
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91,240
I must have wildly different experiences at work to some of you. I can't think of anyone senior to me who would take issue with the 'delay' if they weren't available by the time I could respond and they hadn't asked anything. Some of you must work for some proper loons.

I just can't see how some people aren't seeing this as a 2 way thing - the delay can quite often cause time inefficiencies on both sides by the approach. I'm guessing maybe some of the posters here are the senior person in this equation and just can't comprehend the issue they are creating :cry:
 
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Man of Honour
OP
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25 Oct 2002
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Hampshire
It's not about who's fault it is for me, I just don't like the inefficiency - I don't say "well, that's their fault for not being effective in their comms, so it doesn't matter that we've failed as a team". I understand that perhaps I should just let it pass me by and not give it any thought but it's hard to do that if for example they say "hi" on Day X and I respond later on Day X saying "hi" back, but they've packed up for the day, so on Day X+1 they respond saying what they want, by which time I'm perhaps really busy with something else but naturally getting more cognitive load from this additional ask that I could've dealt with the day before had I known what it was.

I've badged it as a 'pet hate' because it's one of those things I find annoying despite not being THAT big a deal.

In hindsight reading my OP, I probably could have been more explicit that it's the lack of info that is annoying not the fact they say "Hi", I'll edit that in at the bottom. Basically I view it like an email or voicemail (or to take to anl extreme, a letter), what's the point in just saying "Hi" in a professional context if you have no idea at what point the recipient will be in a position to read/respond to your communication.
 
Soldato
Joined
12 Dec 2006
Posts
5,140
Seems like you don't have clear policy in place and communicated to your users of how and where to contact you. As a result they contact you ad hoc and you can't push back and refer them to a policy and workflow that's in place.
 
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