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Discussion on: Sending just 'hi' in Slack/Teams. OK, or really not OK?

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ahferroin7 profile image
Austin S. Hemmelgarn

I’m in a kind of strange middle ground.

If you message me saying ‘hello’ or ‘hi’ or something similar, and then follow up with a message about what you want without waiting for me to acknowledge the first message, I actually prefer that to having it all as one message or just jumping straight to the request. The initial message lets me know something further is coming, which actually helps me a bit to refocus from what I’m working on so I can actually respond to the request.

On the other hand sending a greeting message and then treating the chat like it should be synchronous ticks me off to no end, unless the intent is to initiate a general social conversation instead of something work related (but if that’s you’re intent, don’t just randomly say ‘hi’, say something like ‘Hey, could we chat a bit when you get a moment?’).

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stegriff profile image
Ste Griffiths

Thanks for the nuanced thoughts! I understand where you're coming from. I think I'd personally prefer to receive (and would always send) the first scenario as a single message though. Good to get another point of view :)

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ahferroin7 profile image
Austin S. Hemmelgarn

Agreed, and I can understand most people preferring it as a single message. In my case though, it takes me a nontrivial amount of time to switch focus from what I’m working on to respond to questions and requests from colleagues, so I much prefer that heads up so I can hopefully respond more quickly when they send the actual question or request.