IM messages at work

[MTSkiBum 1,593]

There are some employees that think this is the appropriate way to contact me for every question. Many times I am busy and will need to take action on their request. So i ask them to email me so i do not forget. Still after a few years these same employees do not get the hint.

 

Any tips for ways that I could nicely suggest to people to not message me as the first line of communication.

[Frozenbeernuts 1,652]

There are some employees that think this is the appropriate way to contact me for every questions. Many times I am busy and will need to take action on their request. So i ask them to email me so i do not forget. Still after a few years these same employees do not get the hint.

 

Any tips for ways that I could nicely suggest to people to not message me as the first line of communication.

Nicely? Say Hey dickwad, quit IMing me like I have asked you to do multiple times.

[edjr 5,546]

you should stop lying about working in IT

[MDC 5,875]

Doesnt your IM automatically back up to Outlook?

[Gladiators 1,900]

There are some employees that think this is the appropriate way to contact me for every questions. Many times I am busy and will need to take action on their request. So i ask them to email me so i do not forget. Still after a few years these same employees do not get the hint.

 

Any tips for ways that I could nicely suggest to people to not message me as the first line of communication.

 

Whose head is on the line if their message gets ignored and nothing is done with it? Your or theirs?

[wiffleball 4,631]

There are some employees that think this is the appropriate way to contact me for every questions. Many times I am busy and will need to take action on their request. So i ask them to email me so i do not forget. Still after a few years these same employees do not get the hint.

 

Any tips for ways that I could nicely suggest to people to not message me as the first line of communication.

Blame management. They got to be good for something. Tell them that they're really tracking your service request and that every email becomes a task that gets tracked. And ask them to resend via EM if they want to get priority.

 

I was in the same boat before. The key is, when they do email you? Give them exceptional service the first couple times. And if they don't? You have to literally cut them off on the IM.

 

It's really just about positive reinforcement.

[nzoner 936]

Tell them to start a thread at FFT Geek Club

[patweisers44 696]

A good chunk of my trading activity occurs via IM (part of an online trading platform) so I have a window open all the time. I could see how in a different job, that might be annoying though.

[MTSkiBum 1,593]

 

Whose head is on the line if their message gets ignored and nothing is done with it? Your or theirs?

 

Not mine, many of these requests I could ignore completely none of my direct coworkers or anyone who is above me at the company would ever find out about it. However that is not my style.

[MTSkiBum 1,593]

Tell them to start a thread at FFT Geek Club

 

I just got back from lunch, and I have been busting my ass for the last couple weeks. I am burned out and am not working as hard today as I typically do. I do not want to see every thread at the top be political related, so I started a new thread.

[Gladiators 1,900]

 

Not mine, many of these requests I could ignore completely none of my direct coworkers or anyone who is above me at the company would ever find out about it. However that is not my style.

 

Then just reply to their message and tell them you don't have time to help right now. You'd be happy to help later if they email their question to you. They'll eventually get it. Or they won't and you just start ignoring them. If you can't ignore them, then it's on you...

[mobb_deep 917]

Not sure what platform you use, but we use Lync here. I just block people that annoy me or ask me dumb questions constantly. I work with a group of 5 other developers, so they just go bug them instead.

 

IM'ing doesn't bother me as much as drive-byes though. I flat out ignore people that come to my desk unannounced haha. Just keep my headphones on and ignore them until they go away and email me.

 

I've even told my boss that I went into IT because I don't like people and want to be left alone to code on my PC. I'd have been a pastor or something if I liked people.

[nzoner 936]

 

I just got back from lunch, and I have been busting my ass for the last couple weeks. I am burned out and am not working as hard today as I typically do. I do not want to see every thread at the top be political related, so I started a new thread.

Therein the point of my suggestion,if they can't do what you ask i.e. email have them start a thread here that way when you're here you won't miss anything and maybe just maybe they'll get the hint.

[MTSkiBum 1,593]

Not sure what platform you use, but we use Lync here. I just block people that annoy me or ask me dumb questions constantly. I work with a group of 5 other developers, so they just go bug them instead.

 

IM'ing doesn't bother me as much as drive-byes though. I flat out ignore people that come to my desk unannounced haha. Just keep my headphones on and ignore them until they go away and email me.

 

I've even told my boss that I went into IT because I don't like people and want to be left alone to code on my PC. I'd have been a pastor or something if I liked people.

 

We use Lync. Thankfully drivebys are not really an issue for me. Thankfully most of the people I deal with are in other offices or countries. Outside of my manager which I only see once or twice a week I do not work with anyone who physically works in the same office as me.

 

If I did not have a nice office with a view and a short commute I would probably try to work from home more often.

[frank 2,144]

Get them all to sign up here and you can have your own thread.

[mobb_deep 917]

 

We use Lync. Thankfully drivebys are not really an issue for me. Thankfully most of the people I deal with are in other offices or countries. Outside of my manager which I only see once or twice a week I do not work with anyone who physically works in the same office as me.

 

If I did not have a nice office with a view and a short commute I would probably try to work from home more often.

 

Yah. It sounds a little tougher in your scenario, being a single point of contact for things. You can always put yourself in "do not disturb" mode.

[MTSkiBum 1,593]

 

Yah. It sounds a little tougher in your scenario, being a single point of contact for things. You can always put yourself in "do not disturb" mode.

I do that when I am busy. For the first time in a month or so I do not have any deadlines today and am just casually working through a backlog of minor issues and enhancements. I am the sole business analyst, programmer, and end user support for 5 different apps and I have one programmer help on a 6th (WPF) app.

 

Most are asp.net with sql server backend. Most of the apps have between a 1000-3000 person user base.

 

I realize why everyone was bugging me on Lync. To save time i rarely test and almost always deploy straight to production. Apparently I deployed a breaking change and the AR clerks could not do their job.

 

They probably should get me more help so that there is time to test before deploying.

[Hardcore troubadour 12,576]

Not sure what platform you use, but we use Lync here. I just block people that annoy me or ask me dumb questions constantly. I work with a group of 5 other developers, so they just go bug them instead.

 

IM'ing doesn't bother me as much as drive-byes though. I flat out ignore people that come to my desk unannounced haha. Just keep my headphones on and ignore them until they go away and email me.

 

I've even told my boss that I went into IT because I don't like people and want to be left alone to code on my PC. I'd have been a pastor or something if I liked people.

Lol

[mobb_deep 917]

 

I do that when I am busy. For the first time in a month or so I do not have any deadlines today and am just casually working through a backlog of minor issues and enhancements. I am the sole business analyst, programmer, and end user support for 5 different apps and I have one programmer help on a 6th (WPF) app.

 

Most are asp.net with sql server backend. Most of the apps have between a 1000-3000 person user base.

 

I realize why everyone was bugging me on Lync. To save time i rarely test and almost always deploy straight to production. Apparently I deployed a breaking change and the AR clerks could not do their job.

 

They probably should get me more help so that there is time to test before deploying.

 

Haha. Yah man. Or you could always do gated check-ins and automate your release pipe and testing to lower environments like a responsible programmer.

 

Assuming you use TFS to manage your source and work item backlog, you just need a couple quick PowerShell scripts. I'm not sure how easy it is with Subversion or other offerings. I also do ASP.NET with SQL back-end, and have automated everything so much, I basically just babysit a couple injuns and groom the backlog all day.

[fandandy 3,311]

Send these concurrently.

 

in your ass so deep until you call me Uncle Billy.

 

Dammit Dave. I told you to use email.

[MTSkiBum 1,593]

 

Haha. Yah man. Or you could always do gated check-ins and automate your release pipe and testing to lower environments like a responsible programmer.

 

Assuming you use TFS to manage your source and work item backlog, you just need a couple quick PowerShell scripts. I'm not sure how easy it is with Subversion or other offerings. I also do ASP.NET with SQL back-end, and have automated everything so much, I basically just babysit a couple injuns and groom the backlog all day.

You may have missed it where I am everything. I do end user support, training material, all programming changes, gathering all business requirements, deploying all database changes, deploying the asp.net changes to the web server, etc. Two of the apps are heavily integrated with an Oracle ERP system and a third app is integrated both with an Oracle ERP(Global outside of US) and SAP ERP(only in US).

 

Before the layoffs there was a team of 6 people working on this, now just me. There are many shortcuts taken, one of which is that I rarely test code and I always deploy straight to production. Only a couple times in the last few years has this been a problem. The time savings outweighs the negatives.

[Frozenbeernuts 1,652]

 

You may have missed it where I am everything. I do end user support, training material, all programming changes, gathering all business requirements, deploying all database changes, deploying the asp.net changes to the web server, etc. Two of the apps are heavily integrated with an Oracle ERP system and a third app is integrated both with an Oracle ERP(Global outside of US) and SAP ERP(only in US).

 

Before the layoffs there was a team of 6 people working on this, now just me. There are many shortcuts taken, one of which is that I rarely test code and I always deploy straight to production. Only a couple times in the last few years has this been a problem. The time savings outweighs the negatives.

I thought you were an engineer. And it sounds like maybe they need to hire another person.

[MTSkiBum 1,593]

I thought you were an engineer. And it sounds like maybe they need to hire another person.

 

I was an engineer, but 4-5 years ago I was brought in from the field to work as a business analyst. They are the ones that provide the requirements of software to the programmers. However, that was boring so I taught myself how to program in the evenings and now I am in my current role as a programmer.

 

Perfect description of a business analyst:

 

[GuardBum 73]

Have mgm't buy in that that process is email or whatever ticketing console you use to track your workload. Then sure, if you have time on IM, help out who you want/can but you can also safely ignore or forget to help those that ignore the process.

[KSB2424 3,082]

We have icons that say

 

Available

Busy

Do Not Disturb

Away from Desk

 

etc.

 

I use those.

[12th Man 884]

Not sure what platform you use, but we use Lync here. I just block people that annoy me or ask me dumb questions constantly. I work with a group of 5 other developers, so they just go bug them instead.

 

IM'ing doesn't bother me as much as drive-byes though. I flat out ignore people that come to my desk unannounced haha. Just keep my headphones on and ignore them until they go away and email me.

 

I've even told my boss that I went into IT because I don't like people and want to be left alone to code on my PC. I'd have been a pastor or something if I liked people.

What a loser.

[Strike 3,941]

We have icons that say

 

Available

Busy

Do Not Disturb

Away from Desk

 

etc.

 

I use those.

 

So do we. Most people here just ignore them. When I'm really busy I put myself in to "do not disturb" status which suppresses IM's. But that's the only one that has any effect around here.

[jerryskids 5,165]

 

I was an engineer, but 4-5 years ago I was brought in from the field to work as a business analyst. They are the ones that provide the requirements of software to the programmers. However, that was boring so I taught myself how to program in the evenings and now I am in my current role as a programmer.

 

Perfect description of a business analyst:

 

 

Except I just showed it to my wife who is a BA and she didn't find it funny.

 

Also I just don't log into our IM which is Cisco Jabber. Being in sales I can just give anyone a look since there is no expectation on me having any technical skills whatsoever.