Please don't just say "hello"

A guide to better workplace chat etiquette

Chances are you were sent here by someone within Slack, IRC or another chat after you've started the conversation just saying "Hello" or "Good Morning!" waiting for a response and now you're curious what they tried to tell you with this link…

Have I done something wrong?

Well, yes and no:

It is polite to start the chat with an introduction. However, when you're just saying "Hello" and then wait for a response, you force your chat partner to either ignore your introduction or respond to it wondering why you've started the chat in the first place.

Let's imagine Alice and Fred. Alice is working on something difficult and is highly concentrated on that task while Fred needs to ask Alice a question:

❌ Less Efficient
9:34 Fred: Hey Alice, I've got a question!
9:35 Alice: Hey, what do you want to know?
9:40 Fred: [asks his question]

In this example Alice received Fred's chat, stopped working on the task she was working on and asked him how she can help. After she had done so, Fred starts to type his question and Alice either tries to get back on her task or waits for him to complete typing his question as she's seen the typing indicator. Either case causes her to lose her focus on her work at least once and it probably will take her some time to get back to it.

Now let's take a look at a better approach:

✓ More Efficient
9:34 Fred: Hey Alice, I was wondering whether you can tell me […]?
9:40 Alice: Hey, of course […]

Here some things went better:

  • Fred had already finished typing his question and Alice was able to answer directly
  • Alice could instantly see whether the question needed to be answered directly or could be delayed
  • She would have been able to postpone the response until she reached a point in her work where she didn't need to maintain the context in her head