Soldato
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- 24 Sep 2007
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Just reply and say "Good u?" then get over it and get on with your life.
Pet hate: "Hi, how are you?" as an opener on work chat software
- Thread starter HangTime
- Start date
The politeness isn't the issue, the issue is them being inefficient in their communication by not stating what they want up front. You can do both.
Yes the research factor is important too. We might open up a conversation and then I have to go away and look stuff up anyway, the conversation may be more productive if I know what they want up front. Similar to how meetings can be more efffective with an agenda etc.
I might borrow the "all good, what can I do for you?"
Soldato
- Joined
- 24 Sep 2007
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I think you need to arrange company training for web chat 
Soldato
- Joined
- 24 Sep 2007
- Posts
- 5,221
"Good thx how can I help?" is also a great response.
We use WhatsApp (along with a couple of other in-house messaging apps) quite extensively at work - always annoys me when people don't lead in with what they want - instead just trying to blindly call or a vague "hey" message. I guess some managers like to have you on the back foot but personally, especially when I'm on my own time, I like to prioritise by what I know so if I'm in the dark they go to the bottom of the pile.
Company hates the use of WhatsApp but nothing really beats the convenience and most people don't want in-house software on their personal phones - especially when it wants to know your location... and constantly complains if you don't have location enabled.
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People are just checking are you on
People say hi etc, because they want to know are you there before typing out a long question if you are not there.
Asking how you are is just a standard greeting.
I realise this thread will make me sound a bit 'special' and I'm putting it here rather than in GD in the vain hope it will provoke slightly fewer 'hilarious' replies...
So for a while now, especially since working largely remotely I have got frustrated with the habit people have of messaging me on chat software and just stating a greeting, without any context of what the purpose of their communication is.
"Hello"
"Hi, how are you doing?"
etc
I know this is probably just seen by many as 'being polite' but it annoys me, perhaps more than it should. This is because:
It's like people are treating unsolicited messages on chat software as something other than asynchronous conversation. If you phone me up, sure, ask me a question and get an answer within 5 second. But generally people don't just send an email or a voicemail saying "Hi how are you?" and wait for a response, which is effectively the equivalent of a opening message on Teams or whatever.
- I have no idea what they want from me
- I feel compelled to write some drivel about my state of mind "I'm good thanks and you?" despite the fact I just injured myself / argued with the family / received some bad news that I don't want to discuss with them. And I have to invest in that without it adding any value since I don't know yet what the real reason for them reaching out to me is. I might have never spoken to them before so without sounding harsh, I really don't care that much how their day is going and I don't see that my state of mind is necessarily any of their business either.
- I might not be in a position to reply straight away (often I will be in meetings). So I reply later, perhaps when they are busy. Another couple of hours go past. Then perhaps 4hrs after their original message I might find out the reason for their contact. Sometimes it might be the next day.
Am I alone in wishing people would just clearly state what they need in their opening message? Maybe it is deemed impersonal by some, but I'd find it a lot more efficient.
People say hi etc, because they want to know are you there before typing out a long question if you are not there.
Asking how you are is just a standard greeting.
Zero security if they are using WhatsApp and/or Personal Phones.
Nothing else gets people on the same page and coordinated anything like as much and you are never going to persuade people to install in-house work software on their personal phones to the same level.
I'd imagine amongst other things there are potential GDPR issues though.
Soldato
"I hope you had a good weekend"
Not really, that meeting we had on Tuesday where once again we had to go over the issues with the project, on Thursday there was still no update which was urgently needed and on Friday our requests for an update were blanked. I spent most of the weekend annoyed at the fact we've had another unproductive week waiting for you to fix whatever it is you failed to build correctly in the first place.
I hate working with agencies.
Not really, that meeting we had on Tuesday where once again we had to go over the issues with the project, on Thursday there was still no update which was urgently needed and on Friday our requests for an update were blanked. I spent most of the weekend annoyed at the fact we've had another unproductive week waiting for you to fix whatever it is you failed to build correctly in the first place.
I hate working with agencies.
Shouldn't be using personal phones at all.
That's hardly unique to online chat though.
Most of these greetings are to give the impression of civility or rapport or empathy. When the reality is there is none. Which is obvious from this thread.
A place where there is no interaction other than work is very sterile place to work. On the other hand it's very irritating where someone pretends to be all chummy when you're not.
Pretty much a fact of life these days - most people at work are using their personal phones for accessing stuff via Sharepoint/Office365, etc.
This is absolutely a culture thing. Our teams offshore will happily start a conversation with a "Hi Dave" or a "Can I Call?" Despite being on Busy or "In a meeting". Zero context and often no substance until many messages have been exchanged. Some of this is politeness at their end being seen as inefficiency at mine. Some of this is the social media bad habits creeping into the workplace.
The worst ones being Hi followed by absolutely nothing for 30 seconds which then immediately go to offline because it is their shift change.
Which is because they've left it too late to actually discuss what they need to, but get to say 'well I reached out' when challenged on late deliverables.
No, you left it too late in the day and knew the resources you needed (often me) we're already utilized elsewhere.
Still better than 30+ emails in a chain going absolutely nowhere....
The worst ones being Hi followed by absolutely nothing for 30 seconds which then immediately go to offline because it is their shift change.
Which is because they've left it too late to actually discuss what they need to, but get to say 'well I reached out' when challenged on late deliverables.
No, you left it too late in the day and knew the resources you needed (often me) we're already utilized elsewhere.
Still better than 30+ emails in a chain going absolutely nowhere....
Associate
On chat apps it's cool and just being polite as you can get an instant reply before asking a question (normally I use chat on people I know and emails for people I don't) but on emails it's terrible and I hate it every time I do it. I dont care what their response is but they did it first so I have to ask 
I might change this habit now I've read this thread!
I might change this habit now I've read this thread!Actually it's not.
Good practice is not too allow any device that not managed by the company. Access to company resources. Otherwise you've massive security hole on your network.
Smaller places obviously let people do it, to save money. But it will bite them in the butt. It will also mean they have an easy means to contact those people out of hours.
Yeah that **** I won't tolerate. Teams games.
The politeness isn't the issue, the issue is them being inefficient in their communication by not stating what they want up front. You can do both.
Yes the research factor is important too. We might open up a conversation and then I have to go away and look stuff up anyway, the conversation may be more productive if I know what they want up front. Similar to how meetings can be more efffective with an agenda etc.
I might borrow the "all good, what can I do for you?"
Inefficient by writing one sentence which you're more than welcome to ignore? You can easily prompt them to continue the conversation just by replying with 'Hi, how can I help?'.
I've had some great non-work related conversations with random people in the workplace via IM or a call.
Everyone is different, humans are social animals, the workplace would be a boring place if everyone was just a robot, only talking about work all the time.
I guess it's no surprise that people on a tech/PC forum don't understand this topic!
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I know teams often holds on to a busy status long after a call or meeting has ended. So a lot of people don't rely on that as accurate. Hence the Hi .
The driveby email as someone leaves the office is common via email. I've never had it by chat. But chat seems similar to someone ringing you then get dragged into something else and having to hang up.
The email as someone leaves the office I counter with asking a question which requires an answer. Putting the ball back in their court.