5 ms·

I really want to set this as my status message in slack, but don’t want people to think I’m rude. Would you think it was rude if you saw this link as somebody’

by etxm 6y ago

I really want to set this as my status message in slack, but don’t want people to think I’m rude. Would you think it was rude if you saw this link as somebody’s status message?

dvtrn 6y ago
I tried for a while before giving up because almost nobody in my org reads statuses or heeds them to begin with anyway (as I’ve learned on multiple PTO days where I would change my status to “On vacation, please contact Mike at ——— for support” and getting P1 messages and calls over slack anyway). Nowadays I’m just a stochastic replier.
- etxm 6y ago
  That’s actually a great point I was on “vacation” last week and got messaged every single day despite my palm tree emoji.
  - dvtrn 6y ago
    Indeed. I’m firmly in camp “slack isn’t the problem with workplace communication, it just happens to amplify the problems that were already there”. Most (not all) tech that tries to “fix” communication in the office suffers from this problem though so I’m not blaming Slack alone for this. It just is what it is.
- smusamashah 6y ago
  No one read status, everyone sees emoji though. Make an emoji for what you want to say.
  - dvtrn 6y ago
    What’s the emoji for “escalate to the Denver office for these issues, Chicago for those issues; otherwise I’m not here man”? Because you see I had the palm tree emoji. AND a bit of text. Still got PMs and calls. The emoji didn’t seem to matter.
    - smusamashah 6y ago
      As Joel Spolsky says, no one really reads. May be if you sum your status up in least possible words it will reduce the pokes a bit. Also I sent a college a message while he was on holiday knowingly so that he can see and may reply if he wants to when he comes back. If you are on holiday (palm emoji) you are free to not pick up any calls and messages, until an unless you job is life critical and requires you to respond immediately at any hour.
      - hanse00 6y ago
        Everyone who doesn't really read, doesn't reserve a response anyway.
TechBro8615 6y ago
It just seems passive aggressive, not necessarily rude, per se. You could pull it off if you're a Guilfoyle type. But it definitely does not make you look approachable. It does give me a good chuckle to think how annoyed someone must have been to have made this site in the first place :)
asdasfasdfasdf 6y ago
Put a smilely emoji in there or something and you're good
yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago
> Would you think it was rude if you saw this link as somebody’s status message? Absolutely not; clearly communicating expectations makes life easier for everyone, which is (much of) what politeness is supposed to be about in the first place. The only possible suggestion I have is inlining a 1-sentence summary.
- cole-k 6y ago
  (Potential) counterpoint: there are those who sometimes prefer indirect language. E.g. I would prefer if you said "I don't mean to be rude, but in my honest opinion you're looking kind of shabby these days" rather than "You're ugly" (statements exaggerated for emphasis). I think this matters less in the context of the original thread (the "hello" back-and-forth).
cole-k 6y ago
You should see if you can convince some of your coworkers to adopt it at the same time. I've seen workplaces where many people have nohello as their status. I would be inclined to think it odd if I saw just one person with that status. When I saw every other person using it, it became less off-putting to me.

by etxm 6y ago

I really want to set this as my status message in slack, but don’t want people to think I’m rude. Would you think it was rude if you saw this link as somebody’s status message?

dvtrn 6y ago

I tried for a while before giving up because almost nobody in my org reads statuses or heeds them to begin with anyway (as I’ve learned on multiple PTO days where I would change my status to “On vacation, please contact Mike at ——— for support” and getting P1 messages and calls over slack anyway). Nowadays I’m just a stochastic replier.

etxm 6y ago
That’s actually a great point I was on “vacation” last week and got messaged every single day despite my palm tree emoji.
- dvtrn 6y ago
  Indeed. I’m firmly in camp “slack isn’t the problem with workplace communication, it just happens to amplify the problems that were already there”. Most (not all) tech that tries to “fix” communication in the office suffers from this problem though so I’m not blaming Slack alone for this. It just is what it is.
smusamashah 6y ago
No one read status, everyone sees emoji though. Make an emoji for what you want to say.
- dvtrn 6y ago
  What’s the emoji for “escalate to the Denver office for these issues, Chicago for those issues; otherwise I’m not here man”? Because you see I had the palm tree emoji. AND a bit of text. Still got PMs and calls. The emoji didn’t seem to matter.
  - smusamashah 6y ago
    As Joel Spolsky says, no one really reads. May be if you sum your status up in least possible words it will reduce the pokes a bit. Also I sent a college a message while he was on holiday knowingly so that he can see and may reply if he wants to when he comes back. If you are on holiday (palm emoji) you are free to not pick up any calls and messages, until an unless you job is life critical and requires you to respond immediately at any hour.
    - hanse00 6y ago
      Everyone who doesn't really read, doesn't reserve a response anyway.

TechBro8615 6y ago

It just seems passive aggressive, not necessarily rude, per se. You could pull it off if you're a Guilfoyle type. But it definitely does not make you look approachable. It does give me a good chuckle to think how annoyed someone must have been to have made this site in the first place :)

asdasfasdfasdf 6y ago

Put a smilely emoji in there or something and you're good

yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago

> Would you think it was rude if you saw this link as somebody’s status message? Absolutely not; clearly communicating expectations makes life easier for everyone, which is (much of) what politeness is supposed to be about in the first place. The only possible suggestion I have is inlining a 1-sentence summary.

cole-k 6y ago
(Potential) counterpoint: there are those who sometimes prefer indirect language. E.g. I would prefer if you said "I don't mean to be rude, but in my honest opinion you're looking kind of shabby these days" rather than "You're ugly" (statements exaggerated for emphasis). I think this matters less in the context of the original thread (the "hello" back-and-forth).

cole-k 6y ago

You should see if you can convince some of your coworkers to adopt it at the same time. I've seen workplaces where many people have nohello as their status. I would be inclined to think it odd if I saw just one person with that status. When I saw every other person using it, it became less off-putting to me.