"Hi" [8 hours later due to different TZ] "Hey there, can I help you?" [8 hours later due to different TZ] "Can I ask a question?" [8 hours later due to dif

"Hi" [8 hours later due to different TZ] "Hey there, can I help you?" [8 hours later due to different TZ] "Can I ask a question?" [8 hours later due to different TZ] "Of course, you don't need to ask that!" [8 hours later due to different TZ] asks question [8 hours later due to different TZ] gives answer --- That's often been my problem with that. I'm all for politeness, but these are people I work with, not strangers, and it's basically my job to answer their questions, and they know I'm in a different timezone, and whom I've told that they can just ask their question directly. Certainly in this context I don't think it's any less polite than "Hi there, how you doing? I'd like to ask a question: [question]". No one is really helped with this: not the developer or support staff who wants an answer, not customer who has to wait longer for an answer. I also answer these sort of things outside work hours (I don't mind doing that, I also get a lot of flexibility in return), and three different messages is more invasive than just one. Actually, come to think of it, it's less polite to do it the "polite" way.