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People who just say "Hi" to me often don't get an answer at all.

I don't want to risk someone interrupting my chain of thought with some request that I can't / don't want to act on.

But if I respond to a "Hi" and then decide that I don't want to deal with the actual question, that's perceived as rude.

If you ask the question straight out, then I can decide to respond or not.

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Yeah, I have a co-worker notorious about this. I just quit answering until he writes something amounting to a statement. It's annoying to keep clicking away from a problem for niceties, especially when it's every...single..day.

i think it would be reasonable to just guide him to say "hey, you often just start off these online messages with 'hi.' can you just get to the point first?"

Oh, I have...but more gently. His reply is that he prefers to engage in conversation than just receive a reply. I do understand that point, but also that it's a bit selfish.

Well then. He can wait in the conversation queue, instead of the request queue.

Ignore them.

I don't have slack notifications on at all. I just check it 2-3 times a day when I am between jobs.

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