I originally posted this post on my blog a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
Want to be ignored on Slack or Teams at work?
Type "Hello, how are you?" and press enter.
You'll get ignored immediately. Especially if you're working in a remote team with people all over the world. And especially if you're reaching out to a busy manager or executive.
This is how that "Hello, how are you?" conversation will look:
- Hello, how are you?
- ...
- Good, thanks. And you?
- ...
- Good too, thanks.
- Hey, I just wanted...
But, what if your recipient is on the other side of the world? 24 hours could pass between each message. And for sure, you don't want to wait 48 hours to start the real conversation.
While working remotely at a past job, I used nohello.net as my Slack status. That page shows a fake "hello, how are you?" conversation, getting ignored.
And I still got "Hello, how are you?" messages. Arrrggg!
Would you send an email saying just "Hello, how are you" at work?
I know you wouldn't. Then, why do the same on Slack or Teams at work?
Next time you want to reach out to someone at work:
Don't just send "Hello, how are you?" Say hi and in the same message, without waiting for an answer, say what you really want to say.
Let me say that again, in the same message, without waiting for an answer.
That should be "Remote Working 101" when onboarding new team members at any remote company.
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Top comments (8)
Lol so obvious, are there really people who don't "get" this?
Yes, even while working remotely...in distributed teams. In fact I wrote this post (ok, maybe it's more a rant) because I was tired of it. Even at a past job, I put on my status "no hello messages" and I still got "hello, how are you?" 🤦♂️
Eh "dumb" LOL :)
People don't get to the point. They think this will ease them into a conversation, but it's a mask for what they really want to ask. I say this to my specialist almost every day: Good morning, what's your priority list. I acknowledge them as a human "Good morning", but I really want to know their priority list is. I'll wait for the chit chat when we're both tired from a long day.
That's a good idea to leave chit chat for the end of the day or for a #watercooler channel on Slack.
Hello! How are you? JK LOL
<ignore /> :D
Man. I’m struggling with communication - working in a lean startup and despite over a decade of experience, struggling to transform intuition into effective communication of concerns, esp. working across remote teams.
Was interested when I saw the title, and very disappointed at this waste of a post. Sorry, but this offered absolutely nothing insightful, much less than getting a developer newsletter about how to copy/paste with keyboard shortcuts.