You’re probably here because you said something like – Hello, Hi, or Are you there” to someone over chat 🙂

Saying any of these and waiting — is not an ideal way to start conversations over a team chat app at work, a good idea, instead, is to start by giving the context of what you want to talk about, For example:

Instead of saying:
⛔️ Hello!
⛔️ Hey, do you have a min?
⛔️ Are you there?
⛔️ Hey, quick question!
⛔️ Hello, I need help

say:
Hey, I want to talk about __ is this a good time?
Hi, I’m working on ___ and I was wondering if you can help me with ___
Hi, when can we meet for _____?

Got suggestions? hello@hellomenot.com

Why do people leave it at Hello?

Conversations are the most natural way of communicating – when talking to someone in person, we often start talking only after we have their full attention, we wait for them to either nod, or make a sound, or look at you, right? now, because chatting on tools like Flock or Slack is very similar like talking in person – our brain is hard-wired to wait before we have the attention of the person we’re talking to.

Why is it a bad idea?

Unlike face-to-face conversations chatting or texting does not require the immediate attention of the person we are talking to, which means we can talk as if we would in person – but don’t need to have their full attention.

People often chat while doing other things, they can then save time by simply looking at our message and responding to it, take the following conversation between Ram and Shyam for instance:

⛔️ Conversation A

Ram: Hey Shyam!

⌛️Shyam, who is busy writing a proposal, waits for Ram to speak further…

⌛️Shyam realizes that ram is probably expecting a reply…

Shyam: Hey Ram…

Ram: Do you have Sita’s email address?

Shyam: Yes, it’s sita@geeta.in

Conversation B

Ram: Hey Shyam, can you please share Sita’s email?

Shyam: it’s sita@geeta.in


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